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Sessions of the annual general meeting were held at the rooms of the Society from April 13-5, 1916 , and were attended by the largest number of visiting members since the Franklin celebration. A timely paper on "The Common Folk of Shakespeare" was presented by Professor F. E. Schelling, of the University of Pennsylvania, intended to show that Shakespeare, in the presentation of persons who are neither of exalted rank nor menials, represents his personages according to their individual traits and not with reference to anything that can be called class prejudice.

The article focuses on the annual general meeting of the American Philosophical Society that was held on April 19, 1913. In an earnest paper entitled "The Treaty Obligations of the United States relating to the Panama Canal," a brief history of the various treaties and agreements between the U.S. and Great Britain relating to any such canal if ever constructed was given. Charles P. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, gave illustrations of a very remarkable and ancient fossil fauna discovered by him in the mountains of British Columbia 2,000 feet above field, on the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The session of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia during April 18 to April 20, 1912 was interesting and successful. Researcher E.A. Spitzka of the Jefferson Medical College presented the results of his study of the weight and morphologic appearances of the human brain and its several parts, resulting from a series of studies upon specimens of various races and notable individuals. Professor William H. Hobbs of the University of Michigan, in his paper on "Some Considerations Bearing Upon the Origin of Lava," called attention to the fact that the ideas generally held concerning the origin of lava have all supposed a liquid interior to the earth.