Biography of Fielding Bradford Meek. — JVhife. 339 
ural science that was destined to distinguish^ him. Upon 
reaching manhood, by advice of his friends hut against his 
own inclination, he invested his small patrimony in a mercan- 
tile business, first in Madison and then in Owensboro, Ken- 
tucky. The result was financial failure. After this, he la- 
bored at whatever he could find to do, struggling with poverty 
and ill health, but clinging to his beloved studies, which then 
included such fossils as were found in the region of his home. 
His whole thought was to learn, the idea of becoming himself 
an author not having yet dawned upon him. His studious 
habits became known, and when Dr. D. D. Owen organized 
his U. S. Geological Survey of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minneso- 
ta, he made young Meek one of his assistants, whicli position 
he held during the years 1848 and 1849. 
Having completed his work to the satisfaction of Dr. Owen, 
he returned to his home in Owensboro, where he remained un- 
til 1852, when he went to Albany, N. Y., as assistant to Prof. 
James Hall in the paleontological work of that state. He had 
then not only acquired large knowledge of invertebrate fossils 
but he had become very skillful with his pencil in their delinea- 
tion, and he entered upon his new work with great zeal. 
With the exception of three summers he remained with Prof. 
Hall continuously until 1858. Two of those summers were 
spent on the Geological Survey of Missouri, under the direc- 
tion of Prof, G. C> Swallow, and the other, that of 1853, in 
exploring the bad-lands of Nebraska, in company with Dr. 
F. V. Hayden, both having been commissioned by Prof. Hall 
to do that work in his interests. Three years after that ex- 
ploration he, in conjunction with Prof. Hall, prepared for pub- 
lication by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of 
Boston, an important memoir on Cretaceous fossils from Ne- 
braska. This was really his first published paleontological 
work, and it was a worthy introduction to his subsequent 
career. 
In 1858 Mr. Meek left Albany and went to Washington, D, 
C., where he resided until his death. At that time the needs 
of the Smithsonian Institution had not full}^ demanded the 
oflicial use of all the rooms in its great building and the sec- 
retar}^, professor Henry, encouraged the gathering there of 
scientific workers, not only by olfering them all its advantages 
