The United States National Museum 325 



In 1871 Congress established the United States Fish Com- 

 mission and Professor Baird was placed at its head. The 

 organization of the Commission on this basis had a most im- 

 portant effect upon the development of the National Museum 

 in certain directions. The work of the Commission had to 

 do largely with the natural history of fish and other aquatic 

 animals, and in the course of a few years very large collec- 

 tions of marine life were deposited in the Museum. Later 

 the work of the Commission turned toward the investigation 

 of the phenomena of the deep sea, and in 1*882 a sea-going 

 steamer, the Albatross, was built, and extensive sounding 

 and dredging operations in great depths were carried on. 



The collections made during the progress of this work, 

 and deposited in the Museum, were of the highest scientific 

 interest, and the results already published by Goode, Verrill, 

 Bean, Rathbun, Smith, and other naturalists have attracted 

 worldwide attention. In many other ways, which cannot 

 be detailed in the present connection, the work of the Com- 

 mission was of direct and indirect benefit to the Museum, 

 and the cooperation of these two governmental organizations 

 has continued until the present. 



Not many years after the organization of the Commission 

 the question of the desirability of holding a great World's Fair 

 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Declara- 

 tion of Independence began to be agitated in the country. 

 The movement culminated in the organization of the Cen- 

 tennial Exhibition of 1876, held in Philadelphia. This event 

 was destined to have a more important effect upon the Na- 

 tional Museum than any which had occurred since the 

 founding of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The government determined that the various departments 

 and bureaus should make extensive exhibits indicating their 

 several functions, and on January 23, 1874, the President 



