The Agassiz Association was a society founded in 1875 for the study of natural science, named for Swiss-American naturalist Louis Agassiz. Its founder and first president was Harlan Hoge Ballard (1853–1934). According to its Constitution, the Agassiz Association's purpose was "to collect, study, and preserve natural objects and facts." Each Chapter of the Association was allowed to choose its own officers and make its own by-laws. By 1880, there were chapters in Massachusetts, New York State, and Pennsylvania. By 1884, the Association had about 7000 members and about 600 Chapters. For some years, St. Nicholas Magazine was the official organ of communication between the Association and its members. The Association was incorporated in 1892. Ballard's successor as president was Edward F. Bigelow. The American Fern Society and the Wilson Ornithological Society originated as Chapters of the Agassiz Association.

Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz was born on December 17, 1835, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

He was an American scientist and engineer. In 1849, he immigrated to the United States with his father Louis Agassiz, a zoologist, geologist, and glaciologist. In 1857, he received the degree of Bachelor of Science at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. In 1859, he became an assistant in the United States Coast Survey in California where he became a specialist in marine ichthyology. In 1862, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1866, he worked as an assistant in zoology in the Museum of Natural History at Harvard University. He later became President of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company based in Calumet, Michigan. He greatly contributed to the success of the copper mining operations, donating the US $500,000 to Harvard for the Museum of Comparative Zoology and other purposes. In 1875, he surveyed Lake Titicaca, Peru, and examined the copper mines of Peru and Chile. In 1896, he visited Fiji and Queensland and inspected the Great Barrier Reef, publishing a paper on the subject in 1898. In 1865, he published with Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, his stepmother, “Seaside Studies in Natural History”. In 1871, they also published “Marine Animals of Massachusetts Bay”. In 1902, he received the German Order Pour le Mérite for Science and Arts. He also served as a president of the National Academy of Sciences, which since 1913 has awarded the Alexander Agassiz Medal in his memory.

Alexander Agassiz is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, Anolis agassizi.

He died on March 27, 1910, at sea.

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was born on May 26, 1807, in Motier, Switzerland.

He was a Swiss-born American zoologist, geologist, and glaciologist, father of Alexander Agassiz, a scientist, and engineer. In 1829, he received a Doctor of Philosophy and Medical degree at the University of Erlangen and Munich, Germany, and was appointed professor of natural history at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. In 1846, he immigrated to the United States. He became a professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University and the head of its Lawrence Scientific School. In 1859, he founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology and served as its president until his death. In 1863, he became one of the founding members of the National Academy of Sciences and was also appointed a regent of the Smithsonian Institution. He made vast institutional and scientific contributions to zoology, geology, and related areas, including writing multivolume research books. He contributed to ichthyological classification and to the study of geological history, including the founding of glaciology. An ancient glacial lake that formed in the Great Lakes region of North America, Lake Agassiz, is named after him, as are Mount Agassiz in California's Palisades, Mount Agassiz, in the Uinta Mountains, Utah, Agassiz Peak in Arizona, and in his native Switzerland, the Agassizhorn in the Bernese Alps.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, Agassiz's resistance to Darwinian evolution, belief in creationism, and the scientific racism implicit in his writings on human polygenism have tarnished his reputation and led to controversies over his legacy.

He died on December 14, 1873, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mabel Simpkins Agassiz was the wife of George Russell Agassiz (1862-1951), a zoologist, astronomer, professor, and author, the son of Alexander Agassiz (1835-1910) and grandson of Louis Agassiz (1807-1873). The got married in 1902.