Department of Agriculture 



The relationships of the Department of Agriculture to 

 the Smithsonian Institution and to the National Mu- 

 seum have been even more involved. For many years 

 the United States National Herbarium was in the Smith- 

 sonian Castle, and scientific papers generated by those 

 who studied the collection were published by the Mu- 

 seum. However, at that time the employees in the her- 

 barium were mostly from the Department of Agricul- 

 ture. All other Smithsonian plant collections and the 

 few paid Museum botanists were jammed into the her- 

 barium space, perhaps the most crowded area of a 

 crowded institution. That remarkable student of the 

 grasses Agnes Chase, in whom the Smithsonian took 

 just pride for many years, was an employee of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, as was A. S. Hitchcock, whom 

 she came to assist. 



Although the new Natural History Building was 

 "commodious," for some reason the plant collections 

 were not moved to new quarters there. If it was thought 

 advantageous for the herbarium to remain in the Cas- 

 tle, just east of the Department of Agriculture, perhaps 

 it seemed just as well for the Museum's botanical ma- 

 terial and staff to stay there too. In 1947 the Museum's 

 Department of Biology was divided into departments 

 of Botany and Zoology. But even so. the staff of Botany 

 and their collections were not transferred. They and 

 the Department of Agriculture botanists remained 

 somewhat isolated until the west wing was added to the 

 Natinal Historv Building in the 1960s. 



Government Entomology 



The DeptU tment of Agriculture, founded in 18132, not 

 only predated the Fish Commission but had a far broader 

 mission in the natural history realm. Fhe relationship 

 of insects to crops is so obvious that Townsend Glover, 

 the first government entomologist, was on the scene in 

 the 1840s, as an employee of the Patent Office. How- 

 ever, government entomology did not really become 

 noticeable until 1878, when its few practitioners were 

 organized into a Division of Entomology and C. V. Riley 

 arrived from Missouri. A most forceful personality, Ri- 

 ley was compelled to leave office once, but with a change 

 in administration he returned to run the organization 

 until 1894, when he was given the option of resigning 

 or being fired. 



The insect collection of the Museum had been widely 

 distributed to various specialists throughout the coun- 

 try. Riley offered his Department of Agriculture col- 

 lections to the Museum on the condition that it establish 

 a position for someone to study insects; the Museum 

 complied. A few years later Riley donated his private 

 collection. These two actions were the key building blocks 

 of the insect collections of the Museum. Both Riley and 

 his successor, L. O. Howard, were honorary curators 

 in the Department of Biology." 



In 1894 the old brick Beiber Building, behind and 



to the east of Department of Agriculture headquarters, 

 became vacant. Entomology moved there, along with 

 the Biological Survey.^ This location, to the west of the 

 Castle, was only a few minutes' walk from the National 

 Museum. It is not clear whether any entomologists were 

 housed in the brick Museum, but with space so limited 

 there, it seems unlikely. 



At the turn of the century, much of the work of the 

 Bureau of Entomology was directed toward control of 

 economically harmful insects. Later, Howard wrote, 

 "work on even more fundamental aspects was begun, 

 such as the physiology of insects and their reactions. 

 And it was found necessary to enlarge the facilities of 

 the Bureau in its taxonomic work. This work, consisting 

 of the accurate identification of insects, has . . . been 

 of the most important help to the more strictly eco- 

 nomic workers of the Department of Agriculture; and 

 ... of the diff erent State Experiment Stations and Ag- 

 ricultural Colleges. . . . Demands have been [so] great 

 from institutions throughout the States, [that the] Mu- 

 seum force of the Bureau will undoubtedly be en- 

 larged."** 



Howard's annual reports do not mention the location 

 of staff members, but according to C. F. W. Muesebeck, 

 a long-retired specialist on parasitic wasps, Department 

 of Agriculture entomologists — not including How- 

 ard — were in residence in the Museum by 1910. Not 

 everyone was happy with the arrangements. A. A. Gi- 

 rault grumbled in a paper, "This work was done in 

 Bedlam, that is, the Insect Section, U.S. National Mu- 

 seum at Washington, a place unfit for scholarship.""' At 

 peak staffing, in 1942, the systematic entomologists of 

 the Department of Agriculture numbered twenty-eight 

 specialists, twenty-one aides, and four typists.'" Al- 

 though most of the systematic entomologists have re- 

 mained at the Museum, some moved first to the main 

 building of the Department of Agriculture and later to 

 the Agricultiual Research Center at Beltsville, Mary- 

 land. 



Biological Survey 



The Biological Survey originally came into the De- 

 partment of Agriculture in 1885 as the Economic Or- 

 nithology section of Riley's Entomology Division. Started 

 through the efforts of yet another scientific entrepre- 

 neur, C. Hart Merriam, the enterprise was promoted 

 one year later to Division of Economic Ornithology and 

 Mammalogy. In 1896 it became the Division of Bio- 

 logical Survey, and in 1905 the Biological Survey at- 

 tained bureau status. Under Merriam its work was mostly 

 on systematics, distribution, and life history of animals, 

 for although he had begun as an ornithologist, Merriam 

 devoted increasing amounts of time to mammals. The 

 Biological Survey eventually did a few studies of rep- 

 tiles, but its strength was in birds and mammals, with 

 a particular concern toward developing the concept of 

 animal and plant distribution by climatic life zone. 



50 



The Structure 



