This exhibition was on view April 13 – December 30, 2012. TEMPUS FUGIT: Time Flies Time flies, leaving its mark on the people and objects it touches. This exhibition explores how we try to capture, measure, and find meaning in the midst of time’s inevitable passage. Award-winning Chicago artist Antonia Contro has selected books, manuscripts, and curiosities from the APSread more

This exhibition was on view June 1 – July 8, 2012 Sic Transit Glorious: A Transit of Venus Celebration * Exhibition extended through July 8, 2012! in collaboration with Independence National Historical Park (INHP) Transit of Venus Exhibition & Events The Transit of Venus is both an astronomical phenomenon and a landmark in the history of American science—scroll down toread more

This fall (Sept. 9 – Dec. 14), the American Philosophical Society Museum is going green and high-tech. The Greenhouse Projects present five distinct but interrelated large-scale programs. Each project interprets the historical themes and objects in the current exhibition Of Elephants & Roses and connects them to relevant issues today. The centerpiece is a verdant, futuristic greenhouse installed in theread more

This exhibition was on view March 25 – December 31, 2011 On December 1-3, 2011, the APS Museum held a symposium, Of Pictures & Specimens: Natural History in Post-Revolutionary and Restoration France, in conjunction with the Of Elephants & Roses exhibition. An book of scholarly essays from the symposium will be published in Spring 2013. See a webcast of theread more

17 April 2009 – 17 October 2010 Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection has produced more spirited dialogue than any other scientific idea in modern history. The APS Museum’s Dialogues with Darwin exhibition continues the conversation. You can visit the Dialogues with Darwin exhibition site on the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science website.

22 June 2007 – 28 December 2008 What does it take to be an Explorer? Find five intrepid individuals who shared a sense of adventure and the courage to explore the unknown: David Rittenhouse in the 18th century, John James Audubon, Titian Ramsay Peale, and Elisha Kent Kane in the 19th century, and Ruth Patrick who bridges the 20th andread more

17 February – 31 December 2006 They seemed to have nothing in common. She was the Russian princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, a noblewoman and friend of Empress Catherine the Great. He was the American printer, scientist, patriot and statesman Benjamin Franklin. When they met in Paris in 1781, it was a meeting of two of the most fascinating minds ofread more

February 18, 2005–December 11, 2005 The American Philosophical Society (APS) was America’s first academy of science. Philosophical Hall, the Society’s headquarters, also housed an important library collection and the country’s first major museum. Before there was a Smithsonian Institution or a Library of Congress, the APS collected everything under the sun, including documents penned by the Founding Fathers, models ofread more

23 June 2003 – 31 December 2004 Stuffing Birds, Pressing Plants, Shaping Knowledge: Natural History in North America, 1730–1860, on view at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia through December 2004, explores the cultural assumptions that shaped natural history practice on the North American continent. By focusing on the study of living beings—the plant and animal kingdoms—the exhibition considers howread more

20 April 2001 – 31 March 2003 From the Laboratory to the Parlor: Scientific Instruments in Philadelphia, 1750–1875 explores the significance of scientific instruments in the development of the American colonies and the early republic, with a specific focus on Philadelphia. Through the display of instruments such as David Rittenhouse’s home-made astronomical clock, a battery of Leyden jars to storeread more