CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 73 



chartered by Congress, and in some respects a precursor 

 of the National Museum which eventually fell heir to 

 its collections. The expedition sailed in 1838 and returned 

 in 1842. 



Baird was naturally intensely interested in the fine 

 collection of exotic material which he saw at the Patent 

 Office, and formed the idea of applying for a position as 

 Curator, as at the time there was no competent scientific 

 man in charge. 



He met Mr. Audubon, who happened to be in Wash- 

 ington, at Fuller's Hotel, the Sunday after his arrival, 

 and took his brother William to be introduced to him. 

 After this, both being very busy and Audubon's visit 

 brief, they missed each other. 



As little is recorded about the Museum of the National 

 Institute except in Professor G. Brown Goode's valuable 

 paper the following extracts from letters of William M. 

 Baird have a more than usual interest. They have been 

 assembled on account of the unity of the subject, though 

 of widely different dates. 



From William M. Baird to S. F. Baird. 



WASHINGTON, July 2nd, 1841. 



. . . I have been to the Congressional Library but once since 

 I wrote you, and then could stay for a very short time. I have been 

 to the Patent Office for a little while in the evening after dinner. 

 The collections of specimens which have been sent home is enormous. 

 The shelves of one room are piled with bird-skins. Very few have 

 been mounted in the cases; of the birds sent home by the Exploring 

 expedition, probably not more than 150, principally parrots and 

 pigeons. Although three or four persons are engaged in stuffing 

 and mounting birds and cleaning shells, minerals, etc., not more 

 than one or two birds are finished in a day. The skins in the state 

 sent by the expedition look amazingly rough, but when mounted 



