A Brief Biography of John D. Parker, Co-Founder of the Kansas Academy of Science

In the lore associated with the 1868 establishment of the Kansas Academy of Science (e.g. Natural History Society), John D. Parker’s name is always mentioned along with Benjamin F. Mudge as the co-founders of the organization. While much of the honor deservedly goes to Professor Mudge, then at the Kansas State Agricultural College in Manhattan, it seems from most accounts that Parker was the instigator and most enthusiastic proponent of the effort to form a scientific organization in Kansas. According to Parker (1884), when he “was called in April, 1867, to Lincoln College [now Washburn University], Topeka, there was no scientific association in Kansas, and no general interest in science apparent in the State. The people of Kansas had suffered intensely in the border strife followed by the civil war, of which at Topeka, there were still evidences in the rifle pits along the southern edge of the town, and in the palisades still standing at the intersection of Kansas Avenue and Sixth Street.”