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Alexander Dallas Bache (1806–1867)
Bache, Alexander Dallas (bāch). A distinguished American scientist and educator, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin; born at Philadelphia, July 19, 1806; died at Newport, Feb. 17, 1867. Graduating from West Point at the head of his class (1825), he became professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania (1828); organizer and first president of Girard College (1836); superintendent of the United States Coast Survey (1843), his services in that position being invaluable; active member of the sanitary commission during the Civil War; a regent of the Smithsonian Institution (1846–67); president of the National Academy of Sciences (1863). He wrote ‘Observations at the Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory at the Girard College,’ a scientifically valuable work; a helpful report on education in Europe (1839); and a long series of notable annual reports of the United States Coast Survey.