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The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member organization whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art.
The Academy was founded in 1904 by seven members of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in emulation of the French Academy. An amalgam of the two groups called the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters appeared in 1976, and lasted into 1992, then the current title was adopted. The first seven members were William Dean Howells, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Edmund Clarence Stedman, John La Farge, Mark Twain, John Hay, and Edward MacDowell.
The former title reflected the two-tiered system of the Academy and Institute. There were 250 members in the Institute, selected from among the leading figures in American art and literature, and these members elected 50 members to form the Academy. This two-tiered system was abandoned in 1993, and today, all 250 members have equal standing.
In 1924, the complete list of members of the Academy were these men: John Singer Sargent; Daniel Chester French; James Ford Rhodes; William Milligan Sloane; Robert Underwood Johnson; George Washington Cable; Henry van Dyke; William Crary Brownell; Arthur Twining Hadley; Henry Cabot Lodge; Edwin Howland Blashfield; Thomas Hastings; Brander Matthews; George Edward Woodberry; George Whitefield Chadwick; George de Forest Brush; William Rutherford; William Rutherford Mead; Bliss Perry; Abbott Lawrence Lowell; Nicholas Murray Butler; Paul Wayland Bartlett; Owen Wister; Herbert Adams; Augustus Thomas; Timothy Cole; Cass Gilbert; Robert Grant; Frederick MacMonnies; William Gillette; Paul Elmer More; Gari Melchers; Elihu Root; Brand Whitlock; Hamlin Garland; Paul Shorey; Charles Adams Platt; Archer Milton Huntington; Childe Hassam; David Jayne Hill; Lorado Taft; Booth Tarkington; Charles Dana Gibson; Joseph Pennell; Stuart Pratt Sherman; John Charles Van Dyke.
Members_of_The_American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Letters are chosen for life and have included some of the leading figures in the American art scene. They are organized into committees that award annual prizes to help up-and-coming artists achieve their potential.
First ten years information
In 1909 the Academy of Arts and Letters held the first of a series of public meetings to be held annually in different cities. The living members of the Academy in 1913 were as follows: William Dean Howells; Theodore Roosevelt; Henry James; John Singer Sargent; Henry Adams; Alfred Thayer Mahan; Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury; Daniel Chester French; John Burroughs; Elihu Vedder; George Edward Woodberry; Kenyon Cox; George Whitefield Chadwick; Abbott Handerson Thayer; John Muir; Charles Francis Adams; Henry Mills Alden; George de Forest Brush; William Rutherford Mead; John W. Alexander; Bliss Perry; Abbott Lawrence Lowell; James Whitcomb Riley; Nicholas Murray Butler; Paul Wayland Bartlett; George Browne Post; Owen Wister; Augustus Thomas; Thomas Nelson Page; Brander Matthews; Hamilton Wright Mabie; Thomas Hastings; William Merritt Chase; Edwin Howland Blashfield; Francis Hopkinson Smith; Henry Cabot Lodge; Arthur Twining Hadley; Woodrow Wilson; Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve; William Crary Brownell; Henry van Dyke; Andrew Dickson White; George Washington Cable; Robert Underwood Johnson; William Milligan Sloane; Horatio William Parker; James Ford Rhodes.
These people were deceased: Augustus Saint Gaudens; Edmund Clarence Stedman; John La Farge; Samuel L. Clemens; John Hay; Edward MacDowell; Charles Follen McKim; Charles Eliot Norton; John Quincy Adams Ward; Thomas Bailey Aldrich; Joseph Jefferson; Richard Watson Gilder; Winslow Homer; Carl Schurz; Joel Chandler Harris; Daniel Coit Gilman; Donald Grant Mitchell; Julia Ward Howe; Francis Marion Crawford; Henry Charles Lea; Bronson Howard; Edwin Austin Abbey; Thomas Wentworth Higginson; William Vaughn Moody; Francis Davis Millet; Horace Howard Furness; John Bigelow; and Edward Everett Hale.
A history of events
The oldest organization that may be associated with the group was founded in 1865 at Boston. The American Social Science Association produced the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1898. The Institute adapted itself in 1904 by introducing a two-tiered structure that was to be composed of 50 elite members and 200 others. The people in the elite group were gradually elected over the next five years or more by adding a small number each year. The larger group was called the "Institute," while the elite group was called the "Academy."
The strict two-tiered system persisted for 72 years (1904-76). A new development appeared in 1976 with the creation of an organization called the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. It employed a two-tiered system which persisted until 1993 when the two-tiered system was completely abandoned.
External link
- www.artsandletters.org – official website
American literature | Organizations based in the United States
"The American Academy of Arts and Letters"