246 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



bath tubs were unknown (except the uncomfortable 

 British dish-pan variety), and a hundred other things, 

 had trained his native ability to a point where it had 

 made him expert. He designed the format of publica- 

 tions and printed documents of the Smithsonian, so that 

 two of the octavos were of exactly the same area, laid 

 flat, as one quarto; saving a vast deal of trouble in packing 

 for transportation. His plan of having cases, drawers 

 and trays multiples of the smaller units, with interchange- 

 able parts, is now adopted by every well conducted 

 museum, but was novel when he started it. The first 

 National Museum building is built on a system of units 

 coinciding with the standard half-unit case of the Museum, 

 so that in any alcove, or between any pair of windows, 

 one or more half cases will exactly fit. The economy of 

 space thus gained is of serious importance. His person- 

 ally designed pamphlet cases and file cases have never 

 been bettered, and are to this day sold by a Philadelphia 

 firm under their own name. 



In numberless ways conducing to efficiency and econ- 

 omy this talent was exercised. In what is recognized as 

 "artistic taste" he was less insistent. That an article 

 should fulfil its purpose with efficiency and economy and 

 without obtrusive characteristics, was enough for him. 

 After all, is not this the basis of all true art? In a museum 

 where the fixtures are for the purpose of preserving and 

 exhibiting collections, the cases should not attract atten- 

 tion from their contents, nor a frame from the picture 

 it surrounds. 



Professor Henry was, by necessity, a stern economist 

 in his administration of the Smithsonian funds, and 

 Baird was well trained by him. In Baird's pupil and 

 successor in the post of Assistant Secretary, Professor 



