IS 



FIFTY YEARS OF MUSEUM WORK 



tion of attractive features in such places as scientific museums. For 

 example, the recognition of the educational value of animal groups by 

 such an acknowledged authority as a government museum had much to 

 do with their adoption by other institutions ; once intrenched behind the 

 bulwarks of high scientific authority, they began to find their way into 

 all museums. 



The American Museum of Natural History followed the lead of the 

 British Museum in the matter of groups of birds, and the U. S. National 

 Museum in installing groups of moose and bison; that, with due defer- 

 ence to those institutions, it went beyond them and took the lead in 

 the popularizing of museum exhibits — and especially groups — is largely 

 due to favoring conditions. 



As for Professor Baird, then Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, he naturally stands in a class by himself as a founder of institutions 

 and enunciator of principles, while Goode was deviser of methods and 

 systems. 



Professor Baird, as well as Doctor Goode, took a direct interest in 

 museum work of all kinds, mechanical as well as scientific, and together 

 they made frequent visits to the workrooms and exhibition halls. Profes- 

 sor Baird was somewhat abrupt in manner but part of this seeming 

 abruptness was merely an accompaniment to his promptness in deciding 

 questions brought to his attention and to the fact that he had many and 

 most important matters to decide; really he was most genial in disposi- 

 tion and simple in manner, readily accessible to all who wished to see him. 



Joseph Henry had passed away before my day and my impression 

 of him is second-hand but I cannot help feeling that he was not a particu- 

 larly pleasant man, nor one of broad views, and that natural science in 

 America owes much to Professor Baird's passive resistance and Fabian 

 policy of waiting until opportunity came to carry out his own ideas. 

 For example, Henry- wished to dispose of the collections secured by the 

 surveying expeditions, after they had been studied, while Baird wished 

 to use them in building up a study series for the Museum that he hoped 

 for and happily lived to see. 



Professor Baird— whose death occurred during my absence on the 

 expedition to Funk Island— was succeeded by Professor Langley, well 

 known for his astronomical work and for his researches on the subject of 

 flight. This latter problem occupied most of his time and thought and 

 his interest in the Museum was incidental. Still, it was Professor Lang- 

 ley who in 1901 (or 1900) established the Children's Room in the Smith- 

 sonian, this being, so far as I am aware, the first definite provision made 



