Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
endowment income can be used to
exploit possibilities which are not on
the face of them commercially attrac-
tive.”
9
Within a relatively short time,
such risks were indeed possible, ena-
bling them to experiment with popu-
lar radio broadcasting, for example.
The board of trustees included ex
officio such prestigious scientists as
the presidents of the National Acad-
emy of Sciences and American As-
sociation for the Advancement of
Science and the head of the Smith-
sonian Institution. Prominent trustees
during the 1920s and 1930s included
psychologist James McKeen Cattell
(editor of
Science
and
Scientific
Monthly
), astronomer Harlow Shap-
ley, and such notables as A.A.
Noyes, Vernon Kellogg, and John C.
Merriam. Science Service advertised
the location of its editorial offices
within the new National Academy of
Sciences building to imply legiti-
macy and status (Figure 1), even
though the staff operated independ-
ent of it or any other scientific asso-
ciation.
Trustees also included executives in the Scripps-Howard newspaper
empire and such well-known editors as William Allen White and Marlen
Pew, and the historian Mark Sullivan. These latter advisors shared in-
valuable practical advice on how to compete in the news business, and
they proved to be the critical element in the fight over appointment of a
new director and in preserving what Scripps and Ritter had envisioned.
9
Figure 1. Cover of Science Service
promotion brochure, 1924, showing
the National Academy of Sciences
building in Washington, D.C. (Smith-
sonian Institution Archives, Accession
90-105, Box 20, Folder 19). Courtesy
of Smithsonian Institution Archives.
W. Davis to S.S. Seward, Jr., October 20, 1924; SIA RU7091, Box 74, Folder 6.
