Increase A. Lapham - Honors

Honors

Lapham is considered "Wisconsin's first great scientist" and the "Father of the U.S Weather Service," based upon his lobbying to Congress and the Smithsonian Institution to create such an agency to forecast storms on the Great Lakes and both coasts. When the agency was created through the U.S. Secretary of War, Lapham made the first such accurate Great Lakes storm warning from Chicago.

Since his death, numerous landmarks throughout the southeastern Wisconsin area have been named after him, including Lapham Peak, the highest point in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, a major University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee building, and streets. In Madison, Wisconsin, he currently has an elementary school named after him.

A genus of North American plants, Laphamia, was named for him by Asa Gray. Certain markings found on iron meteors were designated by J. Lawrence Smith as Laphamite markings. A formerly existing glacial lake was provisionally named Lake Lapham. The Wisconsin Archeological Society awards the Lapham Research Medal, first doing so in 1926. The U.S. Navy named a ship SS Increase A. Lapham during World War II. The University of Wisconsin has an Increase A. Lapham Professorship. Lapham was inducted in 1992 into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame and in 2003 into the Wisconsin Forestry Hall of Fame.

The centennial of Lapham's birth was celebrated in 1911. In 2011, celebration of the bicentennial is planned, including an Increase A. Lapham Day at Aztalan State Park.