American Academy of Arts and SciencesArticle Free Pass American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, honorary society incorporated on
May 4, 1780, in Boston, Mass., U.S., for the purpose of
cultivating “every art and science.” Its membership—some 3,300
fellows in the United States and about 550 foreign honorary
fellows (all scholars and national leaders)—is divided into four
classes: the physical sciences, the biological sciences, the
social arts and sciences, and the humanities and fine arts.
Offices are in Cambridge, Mass. The society was established in
1779 by a group of Harvard College graduates—including John
Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and James Bowdoin—and
incorporated in 1780. It evolved largely as a rival to the
earlier American Philosophical Society established in
Philadelphia in 1743 but ultimately became the larger society,
claiming to represent the United States nationally. Its
publications include the Bulletin (eight times a year) and
Daedalus (quarterly). The academy holds a convention each May