A Visual History of the Academy's Homes
Tracking the Academy's locations since our inception in 1817 provides an interesting window not only into our history, but also the history of scientific organizations in New York City over the years. For much of our history, the Academy used rooms and offices within buildings owned by other institutions, some of which Academy Members helped to found.
From our first home, just around the corner from our current location, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons building at Barclay Street and Broadway, to our time spent within the young American Museum of Natural History, to the decades we occupied the Italian Renaissance-style mansion donated to us by Norman B. Woolworth, the Academy’s homes mirror the diverse coalitions and networks of leaders from across academic, government, and industry that we have long gathered to help drive scientific progress.
In this photo gallery you can see a series of beautiful watercolors that we commissioned from illustrator Koren Shadmi prior to moving to our current home. Primarily using archival photographs, Shadmi was able to help bring our history to life, allowing visitors to imagine what it might have been like to walk into that first meeting in 1817 or to attend one of our popular public lectures at the Stuyvesant Institute in the mid-1800s.
We’re proud to have helped contribute the making and remaking of the city over the past two centuries, and are excited to invite you to walk in the footsteps of our past and future Members.