Memoir of Gcorj^c Brown Goodc. 47 



and consider that what the Museum now is, its .scheme and arrangement, 

 with ahnost all which make it distinctive, are chiefly Doctor Goode's, we 

 have some of the evidence of his administrative capacity. He was fitted 

 to rule and admini.ster both men and things, and the Mu.seum under his 

 management was, as .some one has called it, "A hou.se ffiU of ideas and 

 a nursery of living thought." 



His success of administration [says Professor O.sborn] also came partly from an 

 instinctive knowledge of human nature. . . . He .sought out the often latent best 

 qualities of the men around him and developed them. When things were out of 

 joint and did not move his way, he waited with infinite patience for the slow opera- 

 tion of time and common sense to set them right. He was singularly considerate of 

 opinion, . . . fertile of original ideas and suggestions, full of invention and of new 

 expedients, studying the best models at home and abroad, but never bound by any 

 traditions of system or of classification. . . . To all his work also he brought 

 a refined artistic taste, shown in his methods of printing and labeling, as well as in 

 his encouragement of the artistic, and, therefore, the truthful and reali.stic develop- 

 ment of taxidermy in the arrangement of natural groups of animals. To crown all, 

 like Baird, he entered into the largest conception of the wide-reaching responsibili- 

 ties of his office under the Government, fully realizing that he was not at the 

 head of a university or of a metropolitan museum, but of the Museum of a great nation. 

 Every reasonable request from another institution met a prompt response. 

 Not the advancement of Washington .science, but of American science, was his 

 dominating idea. 



There was no subject in connection with the administration of the 

 Museum to which he did not at some time or other give his personal 

 attention. He had a quick e5^e for color and for form, understood the art 

 of decorating and case building, and had besides a special knowledge of 

 subjects ,so widel}^ remote from his own biologic interests that it is a 

 question whether a new species or a new mu,sical instrument gave him 

 the greater pleasure. So fully could I rely on his judgment in all things, 

 that even in matters not connected with the Museum I frequently sought 

 the benefit of his advice, and this was sure to be sound, whether it related 

 to the typography or paper of a new volume of the publications, or to 

 some \veighty question of policy. It is difficult to single out from among 

 the manifold matters relating to the Institution proper which were con- 

 fided to him one single thing. I can not, however, but recall the fact that 

 he seemed to me, both because of the soundness of his judgment and the 

 wide domain of science with which he was acquainted, the fittest person 

 to place in charge of the Hodgkins award made two years ago. To this 

 entire work, from the time pf Mr. Hodgkins's gift down to the closing 

 of the award, Mr. Goode gave unremitting and zealous attention, having 

 served as chairman both of the preliminary committee and the committee 

 on award. 



The field of natural history, of antiquities, of art, of books, is .so vast 

 that a mere assemblage of objects, of books, of prints, of engravings, is 

 not in it.self significant. Collecting is an art which many cs-sa}^ but few 

 attain, Mr. Goode was eminently a collector. As early as 1872 we find 



