The Three Secretaries 19 l 



mit ihm in demselben Geiste der Briiderlichkeit, der uns mit 

 dem Verewigten verband, weiter zu arbeiten. 



"Spencer F. Baird war am 8 Februar 1823 zu Reading in 

 Pennsylvanien geboren. Er war Vorsteher des Smithsonian 

 Institute zu Washington. Am 18 August d. J. verschied er 

 zu Wood's Holl. Im Herzen seiner deutschen wie seiner 

 amerikanischen Freunde wird er lange, lange fortleben. Ave, 

 cara anima / " 1 



XI. 



IN May, 1878, he was unanimously elected to succeed Pro- 

 fessor Henry as the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 In this position he continued the policy of his predecessor, 

 though with more attention to exploration. The number of 

 publications was increased and more attention paid to the 

 development of the library. He secured legislation authoriz- 

 ing the expansion of the endowment fund invested in the 

 Treasury to one million dollars, and began to agitate the 

 question of scholarships in connection with the Institution. 

 During his administration, too, was erected the annex build- 

 ing to contain the overflow of the collections of the National 

 Museum, which had been so suddenly expanded through his 

 influence at the Philadelphia Exposition. To the construc- 

 tion of this building, which covers an area of nearly two and 

 a half acres, he gave his personal attention, and completed it 

 for less than the amount of the appropriation, turning a small 

 balance into the Treasury, something which has rarely hap- 

 pened in the erection of government buildings, and which is 

 still remembered in Congress as remarkable. 



The building has been severely criticized because of its 

 lack of architectural dignity, but it is by far the cheapest 

 structure of the kind ever built, the cost for each square foot 

 of floor space available for exhibition having been only two 



1 Circular No. 4 (pages 59, 60), Berlin, October 13, 1887. 



