Scientific Lazzaroni

The Scientific Lazzaroni is a self-mocking name adopted by Alexander Dallas Bache and his group of scientists who flourished before and up to the American Civil War, gained greater support and laid the foundation for the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy did not, however, solve the problems facing a nation plunged in Civil War - as the Lazzaroni had hoped, nor did it centralize American scientific efforts.

These Lazzaroni were mostly professional physical scientists, interested in geophysical problems, who admitted a few kindred souls from other fields to their ranks. Their interests and range of influence extended to all of the sciences and included much of the research performed in universities and the government. They were consciously promoting the development of a professional scientific community in America.

The Lazzaroni in the United States actually existed around the 1850s and a little before that, though the name was not always the same as the group changed and grew.

The members of the Lazzaroni wanted only university educated scientists, at one point, so as to create a "pure science" for America. Therefore, the scientists that did not match up to the code and "oath" of the initial members would be forced, if possible, out of their vocation and not allowed to advance unless they met the qualifications of the Lazzaroni, who often kept scientists out of any professional scientific position. They used their influence together, a group of top scientists against any one individual.

The following is a partial list of Lazzaroni and their opponents.

List of The (American) Lazzaroni

*Alexander Dallas Bache (1806 — 1867)
*Benjamin Peirce (1809 — 1880)
*Louis Agassiz (1807 — 1873)
*Joseph Henry (1797 — 1878)
*Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (1822 — 1908)
*Charles Henry Davis (1807 — 1877)
*Benjamin Apthorp Gould (1824 — 1896)
*John Fries Frazer (1812 — 1872)
*James Dwight Dana (1813 — 1895)
*Cornelius Conway Felton (1807 — 1862)

Friends of the Lazzaroni

*James Hall (paleontologist) (1811 — 1898)

* Senator Henry Wilson (1812 — 1875)

The Opposition

*Asa Gray (1810 — 1888)
*William Barton Rogers (1804 — 1882)
*Charles William Eliot (1824 — 1936)
*Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806 — 1873)

The Neutrals

*Joseph Leidy (1823 — 1891)
*John William Draper (1811 — 1882)
*Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823 — 1887)

ources

* Nathan Reingold, "Science in Nineteenth-Century America" (1964).
* Frances Leigh Williams "Mathew Fontaine Maury; Scientist of the Sea" © 1963 by Rutgers, The State University Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 63-10564
*"The Lazzaroni: science and scientists in midnineteenth-century America". Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Miller, Lillian B.
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