Cosmos Club

According to one history, Clarence Edward Dutton originally had the idea for a social club for men of science, and shared his idea with Major John Wesley Powell.[6] On November 16, 1878, a group of men met at Powell's home at 910 M Street, Washington, D.C.and discussed their mutual interest in creating what began the Cosmos Club.[2][6] There are no minutes or attendance records from the organizational meeting; however, oral history says twelve attended the meeting.[6][2] Ten signed the articles of incorporation three weeks later, and Powell was selected as the club's temporary president.[2][6] The original incorporators included:

• Clarence Edward Dutton, geologist and Army officer[6]
• Frederick Miller Endlich, chemist and geologist[6]
• Henry Gannett, geographer[6]
• Theodore Nicholas Gill, zoologist[6]
• William Harkness, astronomer and mathematician[6]
• Edward Singleton Holden, astronomer and mathematician[6]
• Garrick Mallory, ethnologist and Army officer[6]
• William Manuel Mew, physician and chemist[6]
• John Wesley Powell, geologist, anthropologist, explorer, and Army officer[6]
• James Clarke Welling, journalist and educator[6]

According to the articles of incorporation, "The particular objects and business of this association are the advancement of its members in science, literature and art, their mutual improvement by social intercourse, the acquisition and maintenance of a library, and the collection and care of materials and appliances related to the above subjects."[6]

The ten incorporators met again on January 6, 1879.[6] They approved bylaws, regulations and rules, and also elected Powell as the official president.[2][6] They approve sixty individuals as Founders; many of these were existing members of the Philosophical Society of Washington which the group feared, was considering creating its own social club.[6] The cost to join was $25, slightly over $700 in today's money.[6] The annual dues were set at $20 for residents and $10 for non-residents.[6]

The original bylaws of the Cosmos Club had the following policy: "Membership in the Club was restricted by high qualification requirements and candidates were admitted only if they (1) had performed meritorious original work in science, literature, or the fine arts; (2) though not occupied in science, literature, or the fine arts, were well known to be cultivated in a special department thereof; and (3) were recognized as distinguished in a learned profession or in public service."[2]

Today, election to membership in the Cosmos Club honors those deemed to have "done meritorious original work in science, literature, or the arts, or...recognized as distinguished in a learned profession or in public service".[7]

Cosmos Club at Lafayette Square, circa 1921

725 Madison Place

Cosmos Club House on Lafayette Square

Tayloe House

The Townsend House ballroom

From 1879 to 1882, the Cosmos Club met in rented rooms on the third floor in the Corcoran Building on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street NW in Washington, D.C.[8][6] The Club moved into a rented house at 23 Madison Place in Lafayette Square from 1883 to 1886.[8][6] However, the membership quickly outgrew the space.[6]

The Cosmos Club has published the Cosmos Bulletin since around 1946.[14] The Club also publishes its Cosmos Club Occasional Paper Series, featuring articles written by its members.[15]

In 1990, the Cosmos Club began publication of Cosmos: A Journal of Emerging Issues as an annual publication of original essays by its members.[16][17] However, publication ceased in 2004.[18]

The Cosmos Club offers two major awards and a scholarship:

• The Cosmos Club Award has been presented annually since 1964 to persons of national or international standing in a field of science, literature, the fine arts, the learned professions, or the public service. Notable recipients have included Edwin Land, Paul Volcker, C. Everett Koop, James Van Allen, Arthur Kornberg, Sandra Day O'Connor, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Elie Wiesel.[19]
• The John P. McGovern Award supports an annual series of lectures in science, literature, arts, and humanities (given by the award recipients). Notable recipients have included: J. Craig Venter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Stephen J. Gould, Edward O. Wilson, Saul Bellow, Derek Jacobi, and Leonard Slatkin.[20]
• Cosmos Scholars Grants are given by the Cosmos Foundation to college students for special supplies, travel, or other expenses to enhance study in various academic fields such as biomedical sciences, engineering, literature, and regional studies.[21]

Many organizations were founded at the Cosmos Club including the National Geographic Society in 1888, and The Wilderness Society in 1935, and the Washington Academy of Sciences.[22][23][6] Since 1887, the Philosophical Society of Washington (aka PSA Science) meets at the assembly hall of the Cosmos Club, now is called the John Wesley Powell auditorium.[24] The Explorer's Club, the Geological Society of Washington and the Washington Academy of Sciences also regularly met at the Cosmos Club.[6] Other organizations that used the Cosmos Club's facilities many times include The Columbia Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.), the Cosmotographers (a camera club), the Friday Morning Music Club, and the Literary Society of Washington.[6]

On November 16, 1903 when the Cosmos Club celebrated its 25th Anniversary, the membership had grown from the original 12 to 567—408 resident, 159 non-resident.[2] Today, the club has approximately 3,089 members in Full, Junior, Senior, and Emeritus categories. Members come from a wide variety of background, but a common theme among members is "a relation with scholarship, creative genius, or intellectual distinction".[25] Club members include three U.S. presidents, two U.S. vice presidents, a dozen Supreme Court justices, 36 Nobel Prize winners, 61 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 55 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[4][26]

The Club only for white men until the 1960s.[27] In 1962, the Club's refusal to admit Black journalist and high-ranking State Department official Carl T. Rowan prompted members such as Bruce Catton and John Kenneth Galbraith to resign their memberships in protest.[27] Desirable Edward R. Murrow and John F. Kennedy withdraw their applications for membership.[27] Less than a year later, the Club admitted its first black member, historian John Hope Franklin.[28]

For its first 110 years, the Cosmos Club did not permit women to join, and it did not allow female guests to enter by the front door, or to enter rooms reserved for members.[27] In 1973, 1975, and 1980, the Club votes against admitting women.[27] In 1987, the Washington, D.C., Human Rights Office ruled that there was probable cause to believe that the Club's men-only policy violated the city's anti-discrimination law.[29] The office was ready to order public hearings on the case, which could have resulted in the loss of all city licenses and permits if the all-male policy had continued.[29] However, on June 19, 1988, the Cosmos Club's membership overwhelmingly voted to accept women members—only 14 of the 771 voting members were against admitting women.[29][5][27] The first class of female members were admitted in October 1988.[5]

Sources for members list.[30][2][26][5][6][15][14][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][27][3]

• List of traditional gentlemen's clubs in the United States
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington, D.C.

• Spaulding, Thomas M. (1949). The Cosmos Club on Lafayette Square. Washington, D.C.: The Cosmos Club.
• Crossette, George (1966). Founders of The Cosmos Club of Washington, 1878. Washington, D.C.: The Cosmos Club.
• Washburn, Wilcomb E. (1978). The Cosmos Club of Washington : a centennial history, 1878–1978. Washington, D.C.: The Cosmos Club.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cosmos Club.

• General Services Administration page on the Cosmos Club, including photograph gallery