Cosmos Club
The Cosmos Club is a social club founded in Washington D.C. by John Wesley Powell in 1878. Clarence Edward Dutton, Henry Smith Pritchett, William Harkness, John Shaw Billings were original members. Among its stated goals is "The advancement of its members in science, literature, and art".
Members include many distinguished figures, some of whom have received many awards and honors, including Nobel Prizes, the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The Club originally met in the Corcoran Building on the corner of 15th and F Streets, Northwest, but moved to Lafayette Square in 1882. Eventually, the Club occupied the Tayloe and Dolley Madison Houses on the Eastern side of the Square, and had two rowhouses between them razed for additional space. Prompted to relocate by the Federal government, the Club moved to the Townsend mansion at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Florida Avenues in Northwest Washington in 1952.
Since 1887, the regular meeting place of the Philosophical Society of Washington has been the assembly hall of the Cosmos Club, now called the John Wesley Powell auditorium. The National Geographic Society was founded in the Cosmos Club in 1888.
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