430 FREDERIC W. PUTNAM 



parted to him by his friend and master, Agassiz, prepared young 

 Putnam in a most admirable manner for his life work in science, 

 and from the day of his acceptance of the position in the Essex 

 Institute he has always been in demand for places of honor and 

 trust in scientific work. In 1859 he was made curator of ichthy- 

 ology in the museum of the Boston Society of Natural History. 

 In 1864 he became director of the museum of the Essex Insti- 

 tute, and three years later was made superintendent of the East 

 Indian Marine Society's museum, and when the Peabody Acad- 

 em}^ of Science was established he was made director of the 

 academ}^. In 1873 he was elected permanent secretary of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1874 

 he was appointed member of the Kentucky geological survey 

 for the special investigation of the caves of that state. In the 

 summer of the same year he was for a time instructor in the 

 school for natural history at Penikese, and in the fall, on the 

 death of Professor Jeffries Wyman, he was called to the charge 

 of the Peabocly Museum. In January, 1875, he was formally 

 appointed curator of the museum. The next summer found 

 him again in charge of the department of fishes in the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, and for two years he divided his time 

 between this institution and the Peabody Museum. 



In 1876 he was appointed by the government to report on the 

 collections made by the survey west of the one hundredth me- 

 ridian, which report was finished in 1879. In 1887 he was 

 elected president of the Boston Society of Natural History, re- 

 taining the office two years. In 1882 he was appointed state 

 commissioner on inland fisheries by Governor Long, in which 

 office he remained for seven years. In 1886 he was appointed 

 to the new chair of American Archaeology and Ethnology in 

 Harvard University. Since 1890 he has been president of the 

 Boston branch of the American Folk-Lore Society, and in 1891 

 was president of the parent society. In 1891 he was made chief 

 of the Department of Ethnology at the Chicago exposition, re- 

 taining this office until the fair closed. In April, 1894, he was 

 appointed curator of the Ethnological Department of the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History in New York, and his time is 

 now divided between the institution and the Peabody Museum 

 in Cambridge. 



Until 1876 Professor Putnam was an ardent worker and an 

 authority in zoology, making for himself an enviable name by 



