REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 57 



Morristown, Pennsylvania, young Watkins entered Lafayette College, 

 from which he was graduated in 1871, with the degrees of C. E. and 

 M. S. He then became connected, as mining engineer, with the 

 Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, remaining one year, after 

 which he entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company 

 as assistant engineer of construction. In 1873 he was disabled for 

 field work by an accident, which resulted in the loss of his right leg. 

 Upon his recovery he was assigned to the Amboy division of the 

 Pennsylvania road. In the same year he was appointed chief clerk 

 of the Camden and Atlantic Railroad, and a year later was reassigned 

 to the Amboy division of the Penns}dvania Railroad, which position 

 he held until 1886, two years after the beginning of his connection 

 with the National Museum. 



His first connection with the Museum was in 1884, when he was ap- 

 pointed "honorary curator of transportation.''' In 1886 he accepted 

 a salaried position in the service of the Museum, to which he devoted 

 all of his time until 1892, when he returned to the Pennsylvania Rail- 

 road Company and at once began the preparation of its exhibits for 

 the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Later he was placed 

 in charge of the Department of Industrial Arts in the Field Columbian 

 Museum, a direct outgrowth of the exposition. He remained there 

 only one year, however, coming back to Washington in 1895 to fill 

 the positions of curator of mechanical technology and superintendent 

 of buildings in the National Museum, w T hich he held until his death. 



In 1891 he became very active in promoting the interests of the 

 Patent Centennial Celebration held in Washington, and served as sec- 

 retary of the executive committee. 



Doctor Watkins was a member of several patriotic and other socie- 

 ties, including the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Society of 

 Colonial Wars, the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, the Society 

 of the War of 1812, and the Philosophical Society of Washington. In 

 recognition of his standing among authorities on the history of the 

 mechanical arts the Stevens Institute of Technology conferred upon 

 him the degree of "doctor of engineering " in 1900. 



Among the best known of his published writings are "Beginnings 

 of Engineering''' (1888); " The Development of the Rail and Track" 

 (1889); "The Log of the Savannah " (1890); and " Transportation and 

 Lifting of Heavy Bodies by the Ancients " (1898). His most extensive 

 literary undertaking was the compilation of the history of the Penn- 

 sylvania Railroad from 1845 to 1896 (as yet unpublished), which also 

 constitutes a very complete exposition of the general subject of rail- 

 road transportation in the United States during the half century. 



Mr. Henry Marshall, taxidermist of the division of birds, during a 

 period of nearly thirty years, died on May 26, 1904. He was born at 



