728 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. 



of 1875, Professor Baird formulated (as requested by Professor Henry) 

 his plans for the different details of the projected exhibit, and these 

 being adopted were carried out to a result that made the Smithsonian 

 display the leading attraction of the extensive Government building. 



At the death of Professor Henry, in 1878, his faithful assistant and 

 coadjutor was elected by the Regents as his successor, and his long 

 familiarity with the different lines of active operations pursued by the 

 Institution, made him from the start an efficient dfrector. Another 

 grave responsibility was thus thrown entirely upon his shoulders, and 

 he proved himself equal to the occasion. 



In 1879, Congress made an appropriation (since continued annually) 

 for the prosecution of North American ethnology, to be expended under 

 the direction of the Smithsonian Institution. For the administration 

 of this important trust, Professor Baird selected one whom he knew to 

 be peculiarly fitted by training, by zeal, and by congenial tastes, to 

 jjursue successfully the anthropologic study of our waning aborigines, 

 and the new Bureau of Ethnology was judiciously committed to the 

 control of the distinguished Director of the Geological Survey, Major 

 Powell. 



In the same year (that following Henry's death) an appropriation 

 (for many years importunately besought of Congress) was made for 

 the erection of a national museum building. In 1882 the completion of 

 this building rendered necessary the re-organization of the Museum, 

 with a staff of expert curators, on a scale commensurate with its im- 

 portance and the abundance of its previously stored material. 



Professor Baird had now become the manager of three great estab- 

 lishments; — the Fisheries Commission, the Smithsonian Institution, and 

 the National Museum ; either one of which was a charge sufficient to 

 fully task the energies of a vigorous man. No wonder, with the strain 

 of unremitted though divided attention to these exacting duties, that 

 while unconscious himself of any unaccustomed or undue exertions, he 

 should find even his robust and stalwart strength was slowly failing 

 under his accumulated labors. 



Informed by his medical adviser that an entire and continued rest 

 from all intellectual exertion was necessary to restore his nervous 

 energies to their wonted tone, he reluctantly accepted the decision. 

 A year ago he asked from the Smithsonian Regents authority to ap- 

 l)oint two official assistants to relieve him from the greater portion of 

 his responsibility, and in hearty compliance with his expressed desire, 

 the eminent astronomer and physicist. Professor Langley, was ap- 

 pointed assistant in charge of the Smithsonian operations, and his 

 well-tried friend and collaborator, Professor Goode, was appointed 

 assistant in charge of the Museum affairs. 



But the relaxation came too late. After a vigorous resistance of 

 his strong constitution to the encroachments of internal organic de- 

 rangements, he finally succumbed to the Destroyer, and quietly 



