This collection contains records created by the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia Board of Trustees from 1925 to 1990, with a bulk of the material created between 1976 and 1989.

The collection is divided into seven series. The series are: “Minutes,” “Department Activities Reports,” “Annual Meeting,” “Committees,” “Correspondence,” “Administrative Files,” and “Presidents Office working files.”

The “Minutes” series dates from 1929 to 1989. This series contains the minutes from meetings of the Board of Trustees which were held routinely every other month. In addition, this series also contains minutes from special meetings. Together, minutes of regularly scheduled and special meetings demonstrate the Academy administration’s plans to achieve institutional goals and objectives. A typical set of meeting minutes includes: information about meeting attendance and location, reports from the various committees, and security changes (stocks bought and sold). Additional information available in annual meeting minutes, or the first meeting of the year, includes: election of officers of the Academy; committee and department appointments; and the estimated budget for the year which includes departmental salaries and operating expenses. The series is arranged in chronologically.

The “Department Activity Reports” series dates from 1983 to 1989. Twelve operating departments of the Academy submitted detailed monthly activity reports. These reports were correlated and condensed by Jan Schmitz, Coordinator of Publications, into Departmental Activity Reports and distributed to the Board of Trustees in order to give members of the board knowledge of the activities of the departments. The twelve departments are, Annual Fund, Membership, Public Relations, Volunteer Program, Publications, Natural History Museum, Education, Exhibition, Library, Environmental Research, Systematics, and Building Operations. The report contains Academy membership and attendance statistics, financial information, grants awarded, publications, library usage, upcoming programs and exhibits, and staff changes, honors or awards. This series is arranged chronologically.

The “Annual Meeting” series dates from 1975 and 1980 to 1992 and includes minutes, programs and notes from the Annual Meetings. Like the bi-monthly Board of Trustees meetings, the Annual Meeting was a forum for the Academy administration to discuss its goals and objectives. The topics discussed at the Annual Meetings were more general and addressed the overall yearly agenda of the Academy, as opposed to the specific issues addressed in the regular Board of Trustees meetings. Other events that took place at the yearly meetings include: the announcement of new Trustees; memorials for members who died over the course of the previous year; and the announcement of the yearly budget. This series is arranged chronologically.

The “Committees” series dates from 1974 to 1989 and contains the records of various Board of Trustee committees. Members of the Board served on a variety of committees which oversaw different aspects of the Academy. Each committee was concerned with policies, planning and organizing matters related to a specific topic. Committees represented in this series include: Executive, Finance, Science, Audit, Long Range Planning, among others. This series is arranged alphabetically by committee and then chronologically.

The “Correspondence” series dates from 1974 to 1989 and contains correspondence between the Officers of the Board of Trustees and various board members, honorary and emeritus, as well as outside funding companies and individuals. None of the correspondence is very extensive. The subject matter generally relates to announcements, solicitations, and letters of appreciation. This series is arranged alphabetically.

The “Administrative Files” series dates from 1925 to 1960 and consists of correspondence with Trustees regarding various administrative matters including meeting dates; and Trustee, Officer, Committee and staff appointments. The information contained in this series provides insight into the day to day operations of the Academy by documenting committee appointments, meeting dates and purposes, election information, resignations, and other officer activities. The series is arranged alphabetically by subject and then in reverse chronological order within the subject.

The “Presidents' Office working files” series is arranged into three subseries: “Annotated Meeting Minutes, Notes and Reports,” “Board of Trustees Activities,” and “President Search Committee files.” This series consists of material collected by Thomas Peter Bennett, President of the Academy from 1976 to 1985, over the course of his term and during the process of the selection of his replacement from 1985 to 1987.

The “Annotated Meeting Minutes and Reports” subseries dates from 1977 to 1985 and includes the Office of the President's collection of minutes from Annual Meetings as well as the meetings of the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees. The subseries also includes President's Reports, which were submitted to the Board of Trustees and contain Academy news, monthly activity report summary, scientific activity report summary, upcoming events, and photocopies of newspaper clippings. This subseries also includes a collection of meeting notes by Regina Kilimnik, the assistant to the President. This subseries is arranged in reverse chronological order, which is consistent with the file’s original order.

The “Board of Trustees Activities” subseries contains materials from 1976 to 1988, which contain information about the organization and structure of the Board of Trustees, membership lists, committee lists, a trustee questionnaire, documents related to the creation of a Trustees Handbook and other papers dealing with daily operations. This subseries is arranged in chronological order.

The “President Search Committee files” subseries contains material from 1984 to 1987 and documents the activities and concerns of the people involved in the search for a new Academy President. The subseries contains proposals from consulting firms, candidate profiles and correspondence, internal search committee correspondence discussing candidates, and interview forms and schedules. This subseries is arranged chronologically. Much of the material in this series is restricted. Please contact the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia Archives for more information.