GENERAL MEETINGS. 
57 
erally responded to by the Executive Departments, and trained ex¬ 
perimentalists and observers were given every facility for physical, 
physiographical, and biological investigations at distant points. 
The Institution thus became almost the Government superintendent 
of scientific expeditions. In all that pertained to ethnology and 
natural history Professor Baird became of course the leading spirit, 
and the various circulars of direction and of inquiry issued by him 
show with what range and thoroughness he supervised this wide 
department, while the resulting memoirs and valuable museum 
accessions attest as their fruits the practical wisdom of the measures 
and methods adopted. 
Congress having made provision for the representation by the 
Government in the National Centennial Exhibition to be held at 
Philadelphia, the President of the United States requested the Ex¬ 
ecutive Departments, together with the Smithsonian Institution, to 
co-operate in a collection illustrative of our progress and resources. 
In his report for 1875, Professor Baird formulated (as requested by 
Professor Henry) his plans for the difierent details of the projected 
exhibit, and, these being adopted, were carried out to a result that 
made the Smithsonian display the leading attraction of the exten¬ 
sive Government building. 
At the death of Professor Henry, in 1878, his faithful assistant 
and coadjutor was elected by the Regents as his successor, and his 
long familiarity with the different lines of active operations pursued 
by the Institution made him from the start an efficient director. 
Another grave responsibility was thus thrown entirely upon his 
shoulders, and he proved himself equal to the occasion. 
In 1879, Congress made an appropriation (since continued an¬ 
nually) for the prosecution of North American ethnology, to be 
expended under the direction of the Smithsbnian Institution. ]For 
the administration of this important trust. Professor Baird selected 
one whom he knew to be peculiarly fitted by training, by zeal, and 
by congenial tastes, to pursue successfully the anthropologic study 
of our waning aborigines, and the new Bureau of Ethnology was 
judiciously committed to the control of the distinguished director of 
the Geological Survey, Major Powell. 
In the same year (that following Henry’s death) an appropria¬ 
tion (for many years importunately besought of Congress) was made 
for the erection of a national museum building. In 1882 the com¬ 
pletion of this building rendered necessary the re-organization of the 
