PROFESSOR BAIRD AS ADMINISTRATOR. 
By Mr. Wm. B. Taylor, of the Smithsonian Institution. 
We are met this eveniag to express in a memorial service our 
respect for an honored fellow-member of our several societies, lately 
deceased, and to indulge as well in an interchange of affectionate 
reminiscence of a departed friend. 
Spencer Fullerton Baird was born at Reading, Pa., February 3^ 
1823. He was graduated at Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pa., in 
1840, at the age of seventeen, and with an original fondness for 
natural history and the study of the out-door world he spent several 
years in his favorite pursuits and in collecting animal specimens 
for preservation. In 1845, at the youthful age of twenty-two, he 
was elected Professor of Natural History in his alma mater —Dick¬ 
inson College. 
Three years later, in 1848, while still pursuing with ardor the 
study of nature, he applied for and obtained from the Smithsonian 
Institution (then recently established) its first modest grant for the 
promotion of original research. This was to be applied to the ex¬ 
ploration of bone caves, and to the development of the local natural 
history of southeastern Pennsylvania. The transaction appears to 
have been the occasion of first bringing the young professor to the 
favorable notice of the Smithsonian Director, Professor Henry, and 
of initiating between the two a mutual respect and friendship that 
continued throughout their several lives. 
The early history of the Smithsonian Institution was signalized 
by a long struggle—both in the Board of its Regents and in the 
Halls of Congress—between the votaries of literature and those of 
science for the disposal of the Smithson fund. During this period, 
in 1850, when it was seen that the income of this institution was 
not to be absorbed in the building up of a great National Library, 
Professor Henry asked of the Regents authority to appoint an As¬ 
sistant Secretary in the department of natural history to take 
charge of the Museum and to aid in the publications and other in¬ 
terests of the establishment. A resolution authorizing such an 
appointment being adopted, Henry selected Professor Baird, of 
4 ^ (49) 
