48 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1919. 



sonian Institution, which position he held until his death on Decem- 

 ber 31, 1918. 



Mr. Clark was deeply interested in all matters of a patriotic and 

 historic nature, and was connected with many patriotic organiza- 

 tions, among them the Sons of the American Revolution, of which he 

 was secretary general and registrar general; the Society of May- 

 flower Descendants; and the Society of Colonial Wars. He served 

 as assistant United States commissioner to the International Expo- 

 sition in London, 1883, expert commissioner and member of the jury 

 of awards at the Paris Exposition of 1889, delegate to the Interna- 

 tional Geographic Congress at Paris in 1889, and was decorated by 

 the President of France with the cross of an OfScier du Merite Ajrri- 

 cole of France. 



It was through Mr. Clark's efforts, under the opportunities afforded 

 by the generous administrative policy of Dr. G. Brown Goode, that 

 the beginnings were made of the present great historical collections 

 in the National Museum. His experience in historical and genea- 

 logical research and his wide connection with historical and patriotic 

 societies especially fitted him for the task of developing an exhibit 

 in the Museum which would show by means of relics and mementos 

 the various periods in the history of the country. Closely related 

 to this phase of Mr. Clark's activity was his work as secretary of 

 the American Historical Association from 1889 to 1908 and as cura- 

 tor from 1889 until the time of his death. 



George Colton Maynard died July 28, 1918. He entered the Mu- 

 seum as custodian of the section of electricity in 1896. Subsequently 

 he was made curator of the division of mechanical technology, which 

 position he filled at the time of his death. 



Of distinguished New England ancestry, he was born in Ann 

 Arbor, Michigan, on October 23, 1839. After the usual common-school 

 education, his attention was directed to the then growing subject of 

 telegraphy, and he became an expert operator. In this specialty 

 he became so proficient and his patriotism was so great that during 

 the Civil War he gladly proffered his services to his Government, 

 and he was called to Washington, where he participated in the great 

 work of those eventful years, being a sad witness of the culminating 

 tragedy in Ford's Theater, in 1865. 



His interest in his vocation was not a nominal one, and possessing 

 mechanical acquaintance of the details of telegraphy, his Imowledge 

 was sought by the larger corporations which at that time were de- 

 veloping. His valuable service was recognized and he had much to 

 do with the building of important telegraph lines. 



As the telegraph yielded to the telephone, he became associated 

 in the early history of its development with Gardiner Greene Hub- 

 bard and Alexander Graham Bell, and had general control of the 



