Meteorology and the Federal Patron: Interactions before AMS and before NSF

This presentation reviews the very long history of interactions between meteorology and federal patrons, from the founding of the American nation to the founding of the National Science Foundation in 1950. The U.S. Army Medical Department, the U.S. Navy, the General Land Office, and the Smithsonian Institution were the main supporters of weather research and service in the early republic. Starting about 1850, the Patent Office, Army Signal Office, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Commerce provided weather services for farmers, sailors, merchants, and the general public. Since 1812 meteorology and the U.S. military have forged close working relationships, especially in times of crisis, in support of health, safety, and warfighting capability. Since its founding in 1863 during the Civil War, the National Academy of Science has coordinated federal research efforts, and, since 1916, the National Research Council has taken on many tasks of national importance, many of them related to meteorology. American Meteorological Society presidents, including Charles Marvin, William Jackson Humphreys, F.W. Reichelderfer, and Carl–Gustaf Rossby, were accomplished scientists with direct ties to the U.S. Weather Bureau. Rossby in particular served to mobilize wartime training of weather cadets, developed new university-federal research partnerships, and moved the Society forward in research and publication. The successes of the Office of Scientific Research and Development in World War II bolstered the widespread opinion, to quote its director, Vannevar Bush, that "science is a proper concern of government." In the early cold war era the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, the Office of Naval Research, and the Atomic Energy Commission, among other institutions, paved the way for the creation of the National Science Foundation in 1950 in support of civilian scientific research.