The American Institute of the City of New York, or, The American Institute of the City of New York for the Encouragement of Science and Invention was a

civic organization Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to ...

that existed from ca. 1828 – ca. 1980. The institute was an association of

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

s. It organized exhibitions, lectures and radio broadcasts to inform the public about new technologies, and served as a locus for inventors’ professional activities. The American Institute of the City of New York was chartered on 2 May 1829. Eventually, the American Institute was merged with the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wit ...

(NYAS) in the 1980s. The

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. ...

received 105 boxes of materials for safekeeping in the 1940s. A detailed index is available at the New-York Historical Society of the contents of each box. Additional materials were given to the New-York Historical Society by Mr. Kenneth Weissman, a trustee and officer of "The Institute" at the time of the merger with the NYAS.

History

A statistical library was established in 1833 and by 1839 had 4,000 titles. The following description of the American Institute was published in the 1905

New International Encyclopedia ''The New International Encyclopedia'' was an American encyclopedia first published in 1902 by Dodd, Mead and Company. It descended from the ''International Cyclopaedia'' (1884) and was updated in 1906, 1914 and 1926. History ''The New Intern ...

:The institute was founded on February 18, 1828, and its American Institute fairs attracted wide attention from investors and capitalists. Among the inventions which received early recognition from the institute were the

McCormick reaper Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which later became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. Originally from the ...

, the

sewing machine A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Since the inv ...

, Colt's fire-arms, the type revolving and double power printing press machines, the first anthracite coal burning stove, the

Morse Morse may refer to: People * Morse (surname) * Morse Goodman (1917-1993), Anglican Bishop of Calgary, Canada * Morse Robb (1902–1992), Canadian inventor and entrepreneur Geography Antarctica * Cape Morse, Wilkes Land * Mount Morse, Churchi ...

telegraph, the

Beach Pneumatic Transit The Beach Pneumatic Transit was the first attempt to build an underground public transit system in New York City. It was developed by Alfred Ely Beach in 1869 as a demonstration subway line running on pneumatic power. The subway line had one sto ...

, the stocking loom, the

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

, and the Francis metallic lifeboat and lifesaving appliances. In the early 20th century, the American Institute was organized as five sections: The Farmers' Club, the Henry Electrical Society, the Horticultural Section, the Photographic Section, and the Polytechnic Section. It had a scientific library of over 15,000 volumes. The institute published a magazine ''Science Observer'' from 1939 to 1941. As opposed to

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

in Philadelphia, the Institute in New York promoted adoption of

tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and poli ...

s to protect domestic manufacturing. American Institute Award Medal MET ADA3059

At one time Guldens mustard had a copy of the American Gold Medal Award on the jar label. Medals were issued in gold, silver and bronze for more than 150 years. American Institute 1881

Notes

References

Annual Report of the American Institute of the City of New York
** 35th annual address by Charles P. Daley: 11 November 1863: "History of Institutions for the Promotion of Useful Arts", page 45.
Journal of the American Institute 1836
via

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

Journal of the American Institute 1837

Journal of the American Institute 1840
** John Davis (1838) Eleventh Annual Address
Transactions of the American Institute 1861, 62

* Katherine Jaeger (February 2006) "American Institute", illustrated, ''The Numismatist'' 119(2):32–8. {{Authority control Science and technology in the United States Non-profit organizations based in New York City Organizations established in 1828 1828 establishments in New York (state) Organizations disestablished in 1930 1930 disestablishments in New York (state)