236 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



tant part of the work which he was called on to undertake 

 w r as the Smithsonian International Exchanges which he 

 went into with his usual energy. 4 



"In the earlier years when the employes of the Smith- 

 sonian were few, it was necessary for him not only to 

 carry on the arranging and supervision of this work, but 

 to do a large part of the manual labor with his own hands. 

 When the actual putting up of the packages for foreign 

 countries was in order he usually impressed into the ser- 

 vice any of his friends who might be in the neighborhood 

 and at leisure; and it is rather amusing to note in his 

 journal who some of the people were whom he set to 

 work at this task. I imagine that very few people are 

 now living who remember the enormous labor and anxious 

 care which laid the foundations of the National Museum, 

 including as it did his own collections, those of the Wilkes 

 Exploring Expedition and the collections of the former 

 National Institute. 



"My father was interested primarily, of course, in 

 seeing that among the explorers sent out by any Govern- 



4 This function of the Institution, suggested by Professor Henry 

 and organized by Baird, was the result of an arrangement with foreign 

 governments by which boxes of pamphlets and books sent by scientific 

 men or institutions as a gift to colleagues or societies of both sides 

 of the Atlantic, under the auspices of the Smithsonian or its approved 

 agents, were passed through Custom Houses without being opened 

 and on arriving at their destination were distributed by the recipients 

 to the people or organizations for whom they were intended. This 

 work was done without charge by the Smithsonian and for some 

 years the transatlantic steamship companies carried the freight at a 

 much reduced rate. In later years the distribution of Government 

 documents on a large scale was added to the function of the Exchanges 

 and it is now regularly appropriated for by Congress as a separate 

 bureau under the direction of the Institution. 



