578 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INS'nTUTlON, 1925 



SECRETARY SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD, 1878-1887 



In 1850, Spencer Fnllerton Baird, a distinguished naturalist, was 

 elected assistant secretary of the Institution. After Henrj^'s death, 

 in 1878, he succeeded him as secretary, and continued in that office 

 until his own death in 1887. 



Secretary Baird was for 37 years continually in the scientific 

 service of the Smithsonian Institution and the Government. He 

 developed the National Museum. An opportunity never to come 

 again was presented by the many great expeditions sent by the 

 Government into virgin fields about this time. Railroads were being 

 built, territories surveyed, arctic and antarctic explorations were 

 being made. The Army had numerous outposts in the then w^estern 

 wilderness. Baird seized the opportunity and made the most of it. 

 He was himself an indefatigable student of the collections, but even 

 more, he trained a school of young men almost as enthusiastic as 

 himself, to whom, after him, is owing the great success of the 

 museum. He was especially instrumental in organizing the system of 

 international exchange of publications which remained under his 

 direct charge until his death. He was the moving spirit in the 

 establishment and organization of the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion, and its commissioner from its foundation until his death. 

 Methods which he invented for fish culture, and the studies of the 

 natural history of our waters inaugurated by him, were epoch mak- 

 ing. The marine biological station at Woods Hole, Mass., originated 

 with him. 



From 1875 Doctor Baird Avas greatly aided by a young and enthusi- 

 astic naturalist, George Brown Goode, who was appointed assistant 

 secretary in 1887. Doctor Goode's untimely death in 1896 was a 

 heavy blow to the whole Institution and especially to the National 

 Museum. 



SECRETARY SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY, 1887-1906 



Doctor Langley was the pioneer of the new astronomy. His won- 

 derful vision and powers of delineation had made his early eye 

 observations of the sun's surface notable, but the chief contribution 

 which he made to astrophysics was the invention of the bolometer, 

 an extraordinarily sensitive electrical thermometer, and the applica- 

 tion of it to the study of the energy of the sun, the distribution of its 

 radiation in the spectrum, and the similar investigation of the radia- 

 tion of the moon. He established the Astrophysical Observatory at 

 the Smithsonian Institution to carry on this type of investigations. 

 He is best known to the public for his studies on aviation. Rescuing 

 from ridicule this later highly important subject, he made careful 



