The Three Secretaries 167 



methods as to his professional acquirements. His appoint- 

 ment, as is there stated, was made at that time more particu- 

 larly that he might have charge of the publications, and that 

 the Institution might take advantage of the ample experience 

 which he had gained in editorial work. 



He first met Henry, as his diary shows, on July 17, 1848, 

 visited with him the building then being constructed, and 

 undertook to collect natural history objects for the Smith- 

 sonian. 



The Regents of the Institution did not, of course, appre- 

 ciate the fact that he had originated, in connection with his 

 work upon his own private collections, a system of museum 

 administration which was to be of the utmost value in the 

 management of the great National Museum, which developed 

 so rapidly under his charge. 



All the efficient methods which are now in use in the Na- 

 tional Museum were practised in the little museum which he 

 had organized at home, and which he brought with him to 

 form the nucleus of the Smithsonian collection. Among the 

 treasures of his cabinet, which filled two large freight- cars, 

 and which are still cherished by the Institution, were a num- 

 ber of the choicest bird skins collected by Audubon, who en- 

 tertained for him a sincere friendship from the time when he 

 proposed to him, a boy of nineteen, that he accompany him 

 on a voyage to the headwaters of the Missouri, and who 

 sought him as partner in the preparation of the great work 

 " Quadrupeds of North America." 



The position of Assistant Secretary was accepted July 5, 

 1850, and on the third of October, at the age of twenty- 

 seven years, he entered upon his life-work in connection with 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



