Benjamin Apthorp Gould (1824-1896), an astronomer, was highly active in securing the establishment of the Academy. Gould's early work was done in Germany, during which time he published approximately 20 papers on the observation and motion of comets and asteroids. After a controversial tenure administering the Dudley Observatory, Gould in 1861 undertook the enormous task of preparing for publication the records of astronomical observations made at the US Naval Observatory since 1850. But Gould's greatest work was his mapping of the stars of the southern skies, begun in 1870. The four-year endeavor involved the use of the recently developed photometric method, and upon the publication of its results in 1879 it was received as a signicant contribution to science.