The United States National Museum 321 



"Miscellaneous Collections," in the reports of the government 

 surveys, and in the journals of learned societies at home and 

 abroad. Many of the more comprehensive of these works 

 remained as standards for a quarter of a century, and some 

 have not been supplanted at the present day. 



In this work no one labored with more enthusiasm or more 

 success than Professor Baird, who, while carrying the burden 

 of caring for the collections and planning for the exploration 

 of new fields, prepared and published a series of works on 

 North American vertebrates which commanded the admira- 

 tion of naturalists throughout the world. 



Side by side with the activities resulting in the increase of 

 knowledge, the work of diffusing knowledge by the distribu- 

 tion of named natural history specimens was carried forward 

 on an extensive scale. In the first twenty years of its history the 

 Institution, according to the estimate of Professor Baird, 1 dis- 

 tributed more than one hundred thousand specimens, of which 

 the larger part were identified and labeled. 



In 1 86 1 the charter of the National Institute expired and 

 the various objects belonging to that organization became the 

 property of the government and were transferred to the care 

 of the Smithsonian Institution. 



At this date, therefore, all the scientific and art collections 

 belonging to the government and the collections made by 

 the Institution itself were assembled in the Smithsonian 

 building. They comprised many thousands of objects, and 

 were administered by Professor Baird as Assistant Secretary 

 of the Institution. 



From the time the government came into possession, in 

 1841, of the collection made by the Wilkes Exploring Expe- 

 dition Congress appropriated each year a small sum for the 

 preservation of the objects accumulated in the Patent Office, 



1 " Smithsonian Report," 1865, page 85. 



