The society's Transactions (the oldest continued periodical in North America) and Proceedings include scholarly books, monographs, papers, and research reports that are distributed throughout the world. Erected in 1789, its headquarters, Philosophical Hall, is, after Independence Hall, the oldest building now standing on Independence Square in Philadelphia. The society's library contains collections particularly strong in Frankliniana, the history of science and culture in America, and North American Indian linguistics and archaeology. The society makes research grants, awards prizes, and, at its twice yearly meetings, provides for its members the companionship, in Benjamin Franklin's words, ``of sensible, virtuous and elegant minds.''
The fields for selection of new members are: 1) mathematical and physical sciences; 2) geological and biological sciences; 3) social sciences; 4) humanities; 5) administration, the fine arts, and public affairs. Membership is limited to 500 residents of the United States and 100 residents of foreign countries.
Princeton professors who have been members of the society, and the years of their election, follow:*
1769 John Witherspoon
1780 William C. Houston
1785 S. Stanhope Smith
1789 Ashbel Green
Walter Minto
1805 John Maclean, Sr.
1831 Henry Vethake
1835 Joseph Henry
John Torrey
1839 Stephen Alexander
1844 John S. Hart
1856 George A. Matile
1867 Arnold Guyot
1871 James McCosh
1874 Charles A. Young
1877 Cyrus Fogg Brackett
Charles W. Shields
1886 William Berryman Scott
1887 Henry Fairfield Osborn
1896 William F. Magie
1897 Edwin G. Conklin
Henry Burchard Fine
John B. Hatcher
William Libbey
Leroy W. McCay
Charles F. W. McClure
Arnold E. Ortmann
Francis Landey Patton
Woodrow Wilson
1901 Dana C. Munro
1908 Charles H. Smyth, Jr.
1911 Augustus Trowbridge
1912 John Grier Hibben
Oswald Veblen
1913 Luther P. Eisenhart
George A. Hulett
Henry Norris Russell
1915 Edwin P. Adams
1918 George H. Shull
1919 Ulric Dahlgren
1920 Edward Capps
1923 Karl T. Compton
William J. Sinclair
1928 James W. Alexander
Hugh Stott Taylor
1929 E. Newton Harvey
Solomon Lefschetz
1931 Arthur F. Buddington
Raymond S. Dugan
Howard McClenahan
1932 Gilbert Chinard
Edwin W. Kemmerer
Charles P. Smyth
1935 Harold W. Dodds
Frank A. Fetter
Hermann Weyl
1936 Edward S. Corwin
1938 C. Rufus Morey
John von Neumann
1939 Theodore Leslie Shear
1940 Frank J. Mather
Howard P. Robertson
1941 Henry Eyring
Thomas J. Wertenbaker
1942 Jacob Viner
~1943 Julian P. Boyd
Charles G. Osgood
1944 Eugene P. Wigner
1945 Frank W. Notestein
1947 Henry D. Smyth
1948 Elmer G. Butler
Samuel S. Wilks
1949 Glenn L. Jepsen
1951 Edward C. Kendall
John A. Wheeler
1952 Albert M. Friend, Jr.
1958 Wilbert E. Moore
1959 Robert R. Palmer
Lyman Spitzer, Jr.
Joseph R. Strayer
1960 Harry H. Hess
1962 John W. Tukey
1963 Ansley J. Coale
Gordon A. Craig
Fritz Machlup
1964 Kurt Weitzmann
1965 John W. Milnor
1966 William Feller
Carl G. Hempel
William Arthur Lewis
Arthur S. Link
1967 Donald F. Hornig
1969 Frederick H. Harbison
1970 Gerald E. Bentley
Lawrence Stone
1972 John T. Bonner
Charles C. Gillispie
1973 Bernard Lewis
1974 Thomas S. Kuhn
1976 W. Frank Craven
Rensselaer W. Lee
1977 William J. Baumol
* In addition over a hundred non-faculty alumni have been elected, among them Richard Stockton, Benjamin Rush, William Paterson, David Ramsay, James Madison, Samuel L. Southard, George M. Dallas, Basil L. Gildersleeve, Livingston Farrand, Raymond B. Fosdick, Clinton J. Davisson, Hamilton Fish Armstrong, Wilder G. Penfield, George F. Kennan, Charles W. Yost.
Five Princetonians -- four professors and one trustee -- have been president of the society: William Berryman Scott from 1918 to 1925; Henry Norris Russell in 1931 and 1932; Roland S. Morris (a trustee of the University), from 1932 to 1942; Edwin Grant Conklin from 1942 to 1945 and from 1948 to 1952; and Julian P. ~Boyd, from 1973 to 1976.
Professor Conklin was executive officer of the so~ciety from 1936 to 1942, Dean Eisenhart from 1942 to 1959.