BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. xix 
pressing on him, he consented to fill without salary until the law could be 
amended so as to make the office independent of the National Museum. 
In connection with the Fish Commission it is proper to mention the active 
part that he took in behalf of the United States at the Halifax Commission, 
which had to do with settling the fishery relations between this country and 
Canada. Nor should the fact that he had charge of the work for the 
Fishery Division of the tenth census be omitted. 
The ability displayed by Goode during his first season with the Fish 
Commission soon led to closer ties between himself and Professor Baird, for 
the latter invited him to join the scientific staff of the National Museum. 
In 1873 he became regularly connected with that institution, and for a time 
received as his only compensation specimens of natural history which he in 
turn presented to the museum in Middletown, where he retained his con- 
nection until 1877. From Assistant Curator in the National Museum he was 
advanced to the office of Assistant Director, and in 1887 he was made, on the 
recommendation of Secretary Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution in charge of the National Museum, which office he continued to 
fill until his death. The genius that he first showed in the arrangement of 
the collections in Wesleyan University broadened and developed as he grew 
older, until it was universally conceded that he had no superior in the world 
among museum administrators. His writings on this subject are accepted 
authorities, and include the well-known monographs “Museums of the 
Future” (1890) and “Principles of Museum Administrations ” (1895), to 
which should be added his annual reports as Assistant Secretary during the 
years of his incumbency of that post. 
The ability for museum administration, with which he was so liberally 
gifted, led naturally to his active participation in what has come to be 
known among government officials as “ Exposition work.” Professor Baird 
intrusted him with the installation of the Smithsonian exhibits at the 
Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876, and he served as 
U.S. Commissioner to the Fisheries Exhibitions that were held in Berlin 
in 1880 and in London in 1883. The minor expositions held in New 
Orleans, in Cincinnati, in Louisville, and more recently in Atlanta, con- 
tained his name on the Government Boards, and he was prominent in the 
management of the Government Exhibit at the World’s Columbian Ex- 
position held in Chicago during 1893, for which he also prepared a ‘* Plan 
of Classification” that formed the basis of the arrangement subsequently 
adopted by the officials for the installation of the exhibits. He had also to 
