The National Academy of Sciences’ Committees not described in depth in Frederick True's semi-centennial history

[The following narrative is taken from Frederick W. True’s Semi-centennial history of the National Academy of Sciences, A History of the First Half-Century of the National Academy of Sciences 1863-1913, footnote 184, p. 331]

In the foregoing account of the committees appointed by the Academy at the request of the several branches of the Government, no mention is made of the following, whose work was either of minor importance, or of such a character that its history is not accessible:

On National Currency, 1863 (confidential).

On prevention of counterfeiting, 1865 (confidential).

On the preservation of army knapsacks, 1868. (Correspondence in the files of the Academy indicates that this committee never reported. The question was one of restoring knapsacks valued at a million dollars, the paint on which had become soft and sticky.)

On silk culture in the United States, 1870. (See Proc., vol. I, pp. 75, 77, Rep. for 1879, p. 11.)

On the exploration of the Yellowstone region by General Stanley, 1873.

On distinguishing calf’s hair goods from woolen goods, 1875 (confidential).

On building stone for the custom house at Chicago, 1878.

On triangulation connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, 1882.

The Academy had some correspondence with the Department of the Interior in 1893 relative to the appointment of a committee on a conventional standard of color. The committee, however, was not appointed. (See Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1893, pp. 43-46; also for 1894, p. 7.)