Memoir of George Broivn Goode. 43 



of erection during Mr. Goode'vS .student years and was dedicated in the 

 commencement week of 1871. 



Before that time [says Professor Rice] the natural history collections of Wesleyan 

 University were scattered in several buildings, very imperfectly labeled and arranged, 

 and most inaccessible to students or visitors. The spacious rooms in Judd Hall first 

 gave the opportunity to arrange and display these collections in such manner as to 

 give them the dignity of a museum. 



The work which Doctor Goode had done while a student under Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz caused an invitation to be extended to him to undertake 

 the arrangement of this collection, and in 1871, when but a little over 

 twenty, he was given the title of Curator of the Museum, and undertook 

 the installation of the collections. It was in this work that he ' ' first 

 showed that genius for museum administration which he was destined 

 afterwards to display in the larger field." He retained his official con- 

 nection with Middletown until 1877, although the greater part of these 

 years was spent either in Washington or in the field. During a portion 

 of this time, although absent from Middletown, he received a salary 

 from Wesleyan University, and was allowed in exchange to send to the 

 Museum duplicates of natural history specimens in the Smithsonian 

 Institution, as well as the duplicates of the collections which he made. 

 He always retained a strong feeling of affection for his alma mater, and 

 founded the Goode prize, intended to stimulate an interest in biologic 

 studies. He was one of the editors of the 1873 and 1883 editions of the 

 Alumni Record of Wesleyan University, and received the honorary 

 degree of Doctor of I^aws from that institution in 1893. 



Doctor Goode's mother died in his infancy, and he found in his father's 

 second wife an affectionate and sympathetic helper, who was a strong 

 believer in the possibility of his future scientific career. To her he owed 

 his introduction to Professor Baird, whom he first saw at Eastport, Maine, 

 in 1872, and this meeting was the turning point of his professional life. 

 Through it he not only got the larger opportunities for natural history 

 work afforded by the Fish Commission and the Smithsonian Institution, 

 but Professor Baird singled him out almost from the first as his chief 

 pupil, his intimate friend, his confidential adviser, and his assistant in 

 all the natural history work in which he was engaged. The splendid 

 advantages which Professor Baird accorded his 5'oung friend were repaid 

 by an intense devotion. 



Mr. Goode said once that he could lay down his life for such a man, 

 and indeed he almost did so, for his originally robust health was impaired 

 by this devotion to Professor Baird's service, particularly at the Centen- 

 nial Exposition of 1876, which he left invalided, and the effects of his 

 overwork in which left him a weaker man through his after life. The 

 death of Professor Baird in 1887 affected him so deeply that it was not 

 until 1895 that he was once heard to say that he had but just recovered 

 ■from the loss. 



