The Cosmos Club is a 501 private social club in Washington, D.C. that was founded by John Wesley Powell in 1878 as a gentlemen's club. Among its stated goals is "The advancement of its members in science, literature, and art". Cosmos Club members have included 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. In 1988 the Club opened to women members. The club has approximately 3,089 members in Full, Junior, Senior, and Emeritus categories. Since 1952, the club headquarters have been in the Townsend House on Embassy Row. Meetings in other communities also are held regularly at reciprocating private clubs, such as The Field Estate in Sarasota, Florida.
History
In addition to Powell, original members included Clarence Edward Dutton, Henry Smith Pritchett, William Harkness, and John Shaw Billings. The Club originally met in the Corcoran Building on the corner of Fifteenth and F Streets, N.W., but moved to Lafayette Square in 1882. Eventually, the Club bought the Dolley Madison House in 1886, Nos. 23 and 25 Lafayette Square in 1906 and 1907 and razed them in 1909 to construct a new five story building, and in 1917 bought the Tayloe House. The Clubhouse in Lafayette Square was sold to the Federal Government in 1940 but, due to the effects of World War II, the Club continued to rent the property. In 1950 the Club purchased the Townsend Mansion and renovated the property before moving in two years later, in mid-1952. The Lafayette Square property is now used by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Since 1887, the regular meeting place of the Philosophical Society of Washington has been the assembly hall of the Cosmos Club, it now is called the John Wesley Powell auditorium. Many organizations have been founded at the Cosmos Club including the National Geographic Society in 1888, and The Wilderness Society in 1935. For its first 110 years, the Cosmos Club did not permit women members, and it forbade female guests to enter by the front door, or to enter rooms reserved for members. 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. 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, but the Cosmos Club then voted on June 19, 1988, to accept women as members. In 1990, the Cosmos Club began publication of Cosmos: A Journal of Emerging Issues as an annual publication of original essays by its members. However, publication of the Journal ceased in 2004. of the Townsend house, 1915, photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston
The John P. McGovern Award, which supports an annual series of lectures in science, literature, arts, and humanities. Notable recipients have included: J. Craig Venter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Stephen J. Gould, Edward O. Wilson, Saul Bellow, Derek Jacobi, and Leonard Slatkin.
Membership
Election to membership in the Cosmos Club honors persons 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". Members come from a wide variety of background, but a common theme among members is "a relation with scholarship, creative genius, or intellectual distinction". Cosmos Club members have included 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.
