Bird collections on the north 

 side of the west wing, third 

 floor, probably in the 1930s; 

 the windows open onto the 

 west court. Herbert Fried- 

 niann is to the right and his 

 assistant, to the left. 



m i 



t I 



about a study of cockroach behavior in the Museum 

 and asked for information on sightings and if possible 

 the actual specimens. Then he signed Clarke's name 

 and distributed it all over the Museum. Clarke was 

 inundated with specimens. 



Roland W. Brown, the paleobotanist of the U.S. Geo- 

 logical Survey, was a character by any definiticjn. He 

 came from a very pooi background and was one of the 

 most frugal persons ever to grace the premises. Stories 

 of his replacing a single shoelace and saving the other, 

 or putting an edge on old razor blades found in a molel 

 room, are all true. He cobbled his one pair of shoes 

 himself, and when his pants became too tight he added 

 a gusset in the seat of a different color. Brown's great 

 interest was in (ireek and Latin, and he compiled an 

 invaluable etymological dictionary ot the names of plants 

 and animals. The book was written on the backs of old 

 letters discarded from Geological Survey files.'"' 



As in any academic setting, the label "character" sticks 

 readily to a person who studies one narrow field in 

 considerable depth throughout his career. Lately there 

 is not so much monographic (some would say mono- 

 maniacal) concentration on organisms about which few 

 people are passionate. But it still is common. Perhaps 

 to a younger scientist, the older specialist who considers 

 himself Mr. Average is the real character. 



One would assume that the number of characters of 

 every kind would increase as the staff increased, but in 

 the view of many staff members, this is not so. There 

 are as many strong-willed individuals as in the past, but 

 their impact is lessened by the size of the facility. Until 

 1960 everyone came in the same entrance and everyone 

 used the same toilet; any event or interesting comment 

 spread rapidly. Size of staff and distance between of- 

 fices have cut down on communication. In 1982, after 



a series of losses of Vienna sausages from his refrig- 

 erator, the sponge specialist Klaus Ruetzler painstak- 

 ingly rigged a time-lapse camera to catch the culprit, 

 but no one on the fioor above, let alone in the east wing, 

 even heard of this. 



Research and Publication 



Now, if the staff does not spend its time being "quaint" 

 so that there are humorous stories to pass on to future 

 generations, what does the staff do? This is a serious 

 question and it deserves a serious answer. The principal 

 occupation of the scientific staff has always been re- 

 search and publication. Investigation without publica- 

 tion is a sterile activity. The Smithsonian Institution 

 issued its first major scientific publication in 1848, and 

 it has been dedicated to publication ever since. Until 

 well into the 1950s, the Annual Report listed the papers 

 published by members of the staff; they are listed now 

 in Smithsonian Year. There is no government agency 

 that provides this degree of individual accountability 

 to the citizens. 



For many years there was a Bulletin uf the United States 

 National Museu)ii, and one extremely crude but easy 

 method of discussing productivity is to measure the 

 shelf space it consumed. About ten feet of bound books 

 were produced until 1909, and about twice that much 

 during the next sixty years. The Proceedings came a bit 

 later, adding up to about seven feet before 1909 and 

 sixteen feet thereafter. Both series included a bit more 

 than natural history. A slight deduction must be made 

 for the fact that the Museum also had quite a liberal 

 policy on who could publish in the Proceedings, so that 

 not every publicatic^n is from a paid staff member. Even 

 allowing for this, a lot has been published. Papers by 

 the Museum staff that were published in the now- 



144 



The Museum 



