Academy
Academy names 5 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Academy a body of persons voluntarily associated to confer on questions of art
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a body of persons voluntarily associated to confer on questions of art, science, or literature. The term originated in connection with the school of Plato and his disciples, who walked and talked and learned and taught in the garden of Academus in Athens. In the sense of a school, academy is still used, especially in New England, for a grade of schools, frequently endowed and ably taught, corresponding in a general way to the public high school. The United States Government maintains a military academy at West Point and a naval academy at Annapolis. The preparatory department maintained by many colleges goes by the name of academy. The report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1907 gives information regarding 1,434 academies having 8,956 instructors and 97,110 students. The number of academies seems to be falling off about one hundred a year. The general use of the term, however, is to designate a learned society holding meetings for the discussion of important, and especially recent, contributions to knowledge. The academy, using the word with this meaning, dates from the revival of learning in the fifteenth century. Over 20,000 associations now exist with the purpose, and usually the name, of an academy. Many, of course, and these are not to be despised, are merely local, organized to compare fossils, flowers, and birds' eggs; but the number of state, national, and international organizations that issue bulletins and proceedings containing additions to the world's knowledge is really large. Sometimes they are termed societies, associations, or institutions. The earliest organization of the sort in this country is the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin and his associates in 1743. The American Academy of Boston (1780) has issued many costly volumes devoted to natural history. Similar work has been done by the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (1814); the Lyceum of Natural History, New York (1818); the Institute of Natural History, Albany (1824), and many others. The list of historical societies is a long one, and the number of societies organized to promote artistic development is still greater. Of American organizations the greatest is the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D. C., with a large endowment and the general government behind it. The scientific societies of Montreal, Rio Janiero, and Santiago have published valuable reports. Across the Atlantic there is a long array of royal, imperial, and national academies, institutes, and societies of art, science, and literature. Florence, Rome, Milan, Venice, Paris, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Berlin, Munich, Pesth, Vienna, Prague, Lisbon, Madrid, St. Petersburg, Christiania, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tokio, Madras, and, in short, all considerable cities with claim to intelligence, possess from one to several academies or learned societies under one name or another. In literature "The Academy" refers especially to the French Academy founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu. It consists of forty members, each with a salary of $300 a year, and three salaried officers. The secretary receives $1,200 a year. The members are popularly called the "Forty Immortals." They fill vacancies in their ranks by ballot. Jealousy at times prevents the selection of the most fitting. Among the publications of the Academy, the chief in importance is an authoritative dictionary of the French language, the first edition of which was published in 1694. In art circles "The Academy" refers to the Royal Academy of Arts, a British institution founded in 1768 by George III. Sir Joshua Reynolds was the first president. The presiding officer is permitted to write P. R. A. after his name; forty members write R. A., and twenty associates write A. R. A. An annual exhibition of meritorious paintings, sculpture, and designs is held at London.
Academy FRENCH, an institution founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
FRENCH, an institution founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu for the purpose of refining the French language and style. It became in time the most influential of all literary societies in Europe. Together with the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and the Academy of Sciences, it composes the National Institute of France. It published in 1694 the first edition of a dictionary. The French Academy originated in a simple meeting of friends who met at the house of Conrart, one of their number. These reunions were held informally for many years. At last they attracted the attention of Richelieu, who, in 1634, proposed to form an Academy, and, from the 13th of March in that year, a record was kept of their transactions and a director or chancellor and a perpetual secretary were appointed. The Academy was definitely formed by letters patent of Louis XIII., in January, 1635; they were registered by Parliament July 10, 1637. At first the number was 30. Ordinary members receive 1,500 francs a year. In 1880 the discussion of the qualifications of candidates which had been in vogue for more than 10 years was abolished, but restored in 1896. In 1671 the sessions of the Academy became public. See INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LET- TERS, AMERICAN, an organization established in 1898. The qua qualification for membership is notable achievement in arts, music, or literature. The membership is limited to 250. The first seven members were chosen in 1917. They were William Dean Howells, Augustus Saint Gaudens, Edmund Clarence Stedman, John La Farge, Samuel Langhorn Clemens, John Hay, and Edward A. The Academy holds an- MacDowell. nually a series of public meetings in different cities of the United States. William Dean Howells, until his death in 1920, was president of the Academy, Robert Underwood Johnson was permanent secretary. In 1920 the membership list was as follows: John Singer Sargent, Daniel Chester French, John Burroughs, James Ford Rhodes, Horatio William Parker, Robert Underwood Johnson, George Washington Cable, Henry Van Dyke, Gildersleeve Twining Edwin Nelson Hastings, spective. A. N. A. FRANCE. See INSTITUTE OF FRANCE.
Academy ROYAL William Crary Brownell
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ROYAL William Crary Brownell, Basil Lanneau , Woodrow Wilson, Arthur ENCES OF PHILADELPHIA, an insti- Hadley, Henry Cabot Lodge, tution founded in 1812. It has one of the Howland Blashfield, Thomas best natural history collections in the Brander Matthews, Thomas world - especially rich in stuffed birds- Page, Elihu Vedder, George Edand a valuable scientific library. It has ward Woodberry, George Whitefield Chadpublished "Journals" since 1817, and wick, Abbott Henderson Thayer, George "Proceedings" since 1841. de Forest Brush, William Rutherford ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND Mead, Bliss Perry, Abbott Lawrence Low- SOCIAL SCIENCE, AMERICAN, an inell, Nicholas Murray Butler, Paul Waystitution organized at Philadelphia in land Bartlett, Owen Wister, Herbert , 1889 and incorporated in 1891. It has Adams Augustus Thomas, Timothy Cole, a large number of members and pub- Cass Gilbert, William Roscoe Thayer, lishes bi-monthly "Annals." Robert Grant, Frederick MacMonnies, William Gillette, Paul Elmer More, Bar-
Academy the gymnasium in the suburbs of Athens in which Plato taught
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the gymnasium in the suburbs of Athens in which Plato taught, and so called after a hero, by name Academus, to whom it was said to have originally belonged. The word is also applied to a high school designed for the technical or other instruction of those who have already acquired the rudiments of knowledge; also a university. Anciently, there were two public academies: one at Rome, founded by Adrian, in which all the sciences were taught, but especially jurisprudence; the other at
Academy AMERICAN Berytus
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
AMERICAN Berytus, in Phoenicia, in which jurists were principally educated. Academy is the name, also, of a society or an association of artists, linked together for the promotion of art, or of scientific men, similarly united for the advancement of science, or of persons united for any more or less analogous object.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 count of 1,434 American academies with 97,110 students, "falling off about one hundred a year," marked a trend that continued: free public high schools absorbed nearly all of that work, and "academy" now survives mostly in the names of private preparatory schools and the federal service academies at West Point and Annapolis. The French Academy still has its forty seats, but they were closed to women until Marguerite Yourcenar was elected in 1980, and the dictionary whose first edition appeared in 1694 reached only its ninth edition in 2024, after work that had begun in the 1930s. Collier's account of the American Academy of Arts and Letters is now out of date in structure: it merged with the parent National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1976, keeping the 250-member limit. The Royal Academy in London still mounts its annual Summer Exhibition, much as the 1910 entry describes.
Written for this edition, 2026.