410 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 
caption: “for preservation of the collections of the 
surveying and exploring expeditions of the government, 
in the Smithsonian Institution,” or an analogous wording. 
But it was not until 1877 that Senator T. W. Ferry 
presented a resolution of the Board of Regents urging 
the erection of a suitable building, that public action was 
taken, and it was not until March 3rd, 1879, that a para- 
graph in the Sundry Civil Appropriation bill giving 
$250,000.00 for the erection of a fireproof building to 
hold the collections was agreed to by both houses of 
Congress. 
Of course for years previously Baird had familiarized 
public men with the desirability of such a building, hold- 
ing a national collection, but circumstances had been 
unfavorable. The stupendous debt created by the Civil 
War tended for many years to make unwelcome to the 
average member of Congress any large appropriation 
which was not for political or “practical” purposes. 
The country at large was not educated to the point of 
appreciating the importance of science, and especially of 
pure science. . 
The idea of a great commemorative Exposition of an 
international character to celebrate the Centennial of the 
Declaration of Independence, however, appealed to the 
patriotic sentiment of the country and was authorized 
by Congress in 1871. In 1875 appropriations were made 
for the participation of various departments of the govern- 
ment in the exhibition, including $67,000.00 for the use 
of the Smithsonian and $5000.00 for the Fish Commission, 
each appropriation to be pro rata diminished by a portion 
sufficient in the total to erect a building for the govern- 
ment exhibit. By other legislation a considerable sum 
of government money was lent to the corporation pre- 
