CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 73 
chartered by Congress, and in some respects a precursor 
of the National Museum which eventually fell heir to 
its collections. The expedition sailed in 1838 and returned 
in 1842. 
Baird was naturally intensely interested in the fine 
collection of exotic material which he saw at the Patent 
Office, and formed the idea of applying for a position as 
Curator, as at the time there was no competent scientific 
man in charge. 
He met Mr. Audubon, who happened to be in Wash- 
ington, at Fuller’s Hotel, the Sunday after his arrival, 
and took his brother William to be introduced to him. 
After this, both being very busy and Audubon’s visit 
brief, they missed each other. 
As little is recorded about the Museum of the National 
Institute except in Professor G. Brown Goode’s valuable 
paper the following extracts from letters of William M. 
Baird have a more than usual interest. They have been 
assembled on account of the unity of the subject, though 
of widely different dates. 
From William M. Baird to S. F. Baird. 
WasHINGTON, July 2nd, 1841. 
I have been to the Congressional Library but once since 
I wrote you, and then could stay for a very short time. I have been 
to the Patent Office for a little while in the evening after dinner. 
The collections of specimens which have been sent home is enormous. 
The shelves of one room are piled with bird-skins. Very few have 
been mounted in the cases; of the birds sent home by the Exploring 
expedition, probably not more than 150, principally parrots and 
pigeons. Although three or four persons are engaged in stuffing 
and mounting birds and cleaning shells, minerals, etc., not more 
than one or two birds are finished in a day. The skins in the state 
sent by the expedition look amazingly rough, but when mounted 
