Selected Galleries

Beginning in 1964, the Commission on the Year 2000 was designed to provoke interest in long-range thinking on different facets of the future of society of the United States and abroad, and to explore a number of problem areas that the Commission felt were important. Topics ranged from biomedical sciences, to the phenomenon of the computer, privacy, natural resources, and more. Set about by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Commission was funded as well by the Carnegie Corporation and the Corning Glass Works Foundation.

This exhibit was created by Simmons College intern Timothy Rodriguez in Fall 2015 from materials found in RG XXI: Projects and Programs. Commission on the Year 2000. 

The process for the Academy’s nominations and elections were set forth in the 1780 Charter of Incorporation, which founded the Academy. There, it details that a candidate for membership had to be proposed by at least one Member, approved by majority vote of the Council, and then elected by vote of ¾ of Members present at the time of the balloting. This procedure has changed much over the years, but what continues today is a similar peer-elected process recognizing elected Members' contributions to the Arts and Sciences in all fields. 

This selection from the thousands of letters of acceptance written by newly elected members highlights one of the most important collections of Academy documents. From George Washington’s acceptance, dated March 22, 1781, New Windsor, New York, where he was in the field leading the Continental Army, to election of Maria Mitchell as the first female member in 1848, these letters reveal both the honor implicit in being elected and the members’ enthusiasm for the Academy’s role in our national life.

The Academy’s first woman member was Maria Mitchell, elected in 1848. However, it would be 95 years before another woman was elected to the Academy. While the Academy never had language in its Statues barring women from Membership, general questions of membership policy forbore the election of women. In 1943, four women were elected to the Academy: Harvard astronomer Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin, psychologist Augusta Fox Bronner, Radcliffe president Ada Louise Comstock, and novelist Willa Cather. What follows is a selection of Letters of Acceptance from among our historical women who were members, elected after Maria Mitchell.