The Wagner Free Institute of Science is a

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

at 1700 West Montgomery Avenue in north

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States. Founded in 1855, it is a rare surviving example of a Victorian era scientific society, with a museum, research center, library, and educational facilities. Its buildings, developed between 1859 and 1901, present the collections of founder William Wagner in the style of the period, and have been designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

for their architecture and state of preservation.

History

The Wagner Free Institute was founded in 1855 by William Wagner, a merchant, philanthropist, and

gentleman scientist An independent scientist (historically also known as gentleman scientist) is a financially independent scientist who pursues scientific study without direct affiliation to a public institution such as a university or government-run research and ...

of the time, who sought to offer free educational courses to all who would seek to learn about the natural world. Wagner began offering free lectures on science at his home, Elm Grove, a colonial farm estate on the outskirts of Philadelphia in 1847. To illustrate the lectures, he drew on a collection of specimens he had gathered since his boyhood. All of the classes were offered with an open admission policy that allowed women as well as men to attend. These lectures became so popular that by 1855 he moved them first to a public hall to accommodate the rapidly growing audience, and later to its permanent home designed by Philadelphia architect

John McArthur, Jr. John McArthur Jr. (1823–1890) was a prominent United States, American architect based in Philadelphia. Best remembered as the architect of the landmark Philadelphia City Hall, McArthur also designed some of the city's most ambitious buildings o ...

, who would go on to design Philadelphia's

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

. Wagner continued to lecture and to lead the unique institution until his death in 1885. The Board of Trustees then appointed

Joseph Leidy Joseph Mellick Leidy (September 9, 1823 – April 30, 1891) was an American paleontologist, parasitologist and anatomist. Leidy was professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, later was a professor of natural history at Swarthmore ...

, a biologist of international reputation, to head its scientific and educational programs. Leidy's appointment ushered in an active and productive era in which the Institute's mission and programs were greatly expanded. Leidy's most lasting and significant contribution to the Institute was his reorganization of the Institute's museum. He greatly enlarged Wagner's original collection by further field collection, purchases and other acquisitions. Leidy personally developed and supervised their reorganization into a systematic display in which specimens and cases were arranged according to Darwin's theory of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

, so that visitors moved from simpler to more complex organisms and through geologic time as they walked through the exhibition hall. This new display opened in 1891 and little has been altered since Leidy's time, making the Institute an exceptional example of a

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

science museum. In 1892, the first branch of the Philadelphia Public Library, later becoming the

Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the City of Philadelphia gove ...

, opened at the Wagner Institute. The branch remained open until 1962. The Institute has continued to carry out Wagner's initial goals of offering free science courses, while also functioning as a library, lecture hall and museum. The museum maintains more than 100,000 specimens, including

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

s and

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s collected by Wagner. Today, the Wagner Free Institute of Science is widely recognized as one of Philadelphia's historical treasures. While preserving its historic building and collections for future generations, the Institute also serves as a rich educational resource for programs on science, natural history, and the history of science from the 19th century to the present. The Wagner has received support from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

to preserve the building and its collection. WagnerInstitute.png, Modern photograph WagnerFreeInstitute.jpg, Second-floor Hall and galleries.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner Free Institute Of Science Natural history museums in Pennsylvania Museums in Philadelphia Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania 1855 establishments in Pennsylvania North Central, Philadelphia Paleontology in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia

History

See also

References

External links