Spencer Fullerton Baird

In 1850, Baird became the first curator at the Smithsonian Institution[1] and the Permanent Secretary for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the latter which he served for three years.[8] Upon his arrival in Washington, he brought two railroad box cars worth of his personal collection. Baird created a museum program for the Smithsonian, requesting that the organization focus on natural history in the United States.[9] His program also allowed him to create a network of collectors through an exchange system.[1] He asked that members of the Army and Navy collect rare animals and plant specimens from west of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.[10] In order to balance the collection, Baird sent duplicate specimens to other museums around the country, often exchanging the duplicates for specimens the Smithsonian needed.[11] During the 1850s he described over 50 new species of reptiles, some by himself, and others with his student Charles Frédéric Girard.[12] Their 1853 catalog of the Smithsonian's snake collection is a benchmark work in North American herpetology. Baird also was a mentor to herpetologist Robert Kennicott who died prematurely, at which point Baird left the field of herpetology to focus on larger projects.[13]

Spencer Fullerton Baird by Unknown, 1880s

Eventually, he became the Assistant Secretary, serving under Joseph Henry. As assistant, Baird helped develop a publication and journal exchange, that provided scientists around the world with publications they would have a hard time accessing. He supported the work of William Stimpson, Robert Kennicott, Henry Ulke and Henry Bryant.[1] Between his start as Assistant Secretary and 1855, he worked with Joseph Henry to provide scientific equipment and needs to the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey.[14] In 1855, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[15] He received his Ph.D. in physical science in 1856 from Dickinson College.[2] In 1857 and 1852 he acquired the collection of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science. However, the objects did not join the permanent collection of the Smithsonian until 1858.[1] Baird attended the funeral of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, alongside Joseph Henry.[16] In 1870, Baird was vacationing in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he developed an interest in maritime research. He went on to lead expeditions in Nova Scotia and New England.[17]

Baird with his wife and daughter in Wood's Hole, Massachusetts. It was at Wood's Hole that Baird gained interest in ichthyology.

On February 25, 1871, Ulysses S. Grant appointed Baird as the first Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for the United States Fish Commission. He served in this position until his death. With Baird as Commissioner, the commission sought opportunities to restock rivers with salmon[18] and lakes with other food fish and the depletion of food fish in coastal waters.[19] Baird reported that humans were the reason for the decline of food fish in these coastal areas.[3] Individuals with access to shoreline property used weirs, or nets, to capture large amounts of fish on the coast, which threatened the supply of fish on the coast. Baird used the U.S. Fish Commission to limit human impact through a compromise by prohibiting the capture of fish in traps from 6pm on Fridays until 6pm on Mondays.[20][21] The Albatross research vessel was launched during his tenure, in 1882.[22] He was highly active in developing fishing and fishery policies for the United States, and was instrumental in making Woods Hole the research venue it is today.[23]

Baird became the manager of the United States National Museum in 1872.[1] Baird told George Perkins Marsh that he sought to be the director of the National Museum and that he had intentions to expand on the collections within the museum en masse.[1] He was the primary writer of A History of North American Birds, which was published in 1874 and continues to be an important publication in ornithology today.[6] He created all of the United States federal exhibits in the Centennial Exposition,[19] many of which won awards. When the exposition ended, Baird was successful in persuading other exhibitors to contribute the objects from their exhibits to the Smithsonian.[1] In total, Baird left with sixty-two boxcars filled with 4,000 cartons of objects.[24] Owing to the large number of objects collected, in 1879, Congress approved construction for the first National Museum building, which is now the Arts and Industries Building.[1]

Joseph Henry died on May 13, 1878[19] and on May 17, Baird became the second Secretary of the Smithsonian.[1] Baird was allowed to live, rent free, in the Smithsonian Institution Building, but declined and had the east wing converted into workspace. He also had telephones installed throughout the building.[25] That year, he was made a member of the Order of St. Olav by the King of Sweden.[26] In 1880 Baird was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society[27] He oversaw the building of the new National Museum building, which opened in 1881.[1] In September 1883, he was unanimously declared a founding member of the American Ornithologists' Union even though his duties prevented him from attending their first convention.[28] During the February 1887, Baird went on leave due to "intellectual exertion".[3] Samuel P. Langley served as Acting Secretary.[29]

• The genus Bairdiella of drumfishes was named after him by Theodore Gill in 1861.
• Baird's smooth-head, Alepocephalus bairdii Goode and Bean, 1879.
• Lancer dragonet, Callionymus bairdi Jordan, 1888[38]
• Mottled sculpin, Cottus bairdii Girard, 1850.
• Bumphead damselfish, Microspathodon bairdii (Gill, 1862).
• Marlin-spike grenadier, Nezumia bairdii (Goode & Bean, 1877).

• Baird's beaked whale, Berardius bairdii Stejneger, 1883.
• Baird's pocket gopher, Geomys breviceps (Baird, 1855)
• Prairie deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii (Hoy and Kennicott, 1857)
• Baird's shrew, Sorex bairdi (Meriam, 1895)
• Baird's tapir, Tapirus bairdii (Gill, 1865).

• Baird's sparrow, Ammodramus bairdii (Audubon, 1844).
• Baird's sandpiper, Calidris bairdii Coues, 1861.
• Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker, Campephilus bairdii (now C. principalis bairdii), Cassin, 1863.
• Baird's flycatcher, Myiodynastes bairdii Gambell, 1847.
• Baird's trogon, Trogon bairdii Lawrence, 1868.

• Tanner crab, Chionoecetes bairdi Rathbun, 1924.
• Red lobster, Eunephrops bairdii S. I. Smith, 1885.

• Baird's rat snake, Pantherophis bairdi (Yarrow, 1880).[39]
• Baird's patch-nosed snake, Salvadora bairdi Jan, 1860.[39]

• Baird

• M.V. Spencer F. Baird, Ocean-surveying ship.

• The Lake Shasta Caverns were formerly named Baird Cave.[40]

• "Directions for Collecting, Preserving, and Transporting Specimens of Natural History." Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year 1856. p. 235-253.
• with Robert Ridgway and Thomas Mayo Brewer. A History Of North American Birds. ISBN 1286040981
• with Charles Frédéric Girard. Catalogue of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part I.—Serpents. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. xvi + 172 pp. (1853).

• Allard, Dean C. Spencer Fullerton Baird and the U. S. Fish Commission: A Study in the History of American Science. Washington: The George Washington University (1967).
• Belote, Theodore T. "The Secretarial Cases." Scientific Monthly. 58 (1946): 366–370.
• Cockerell, Theodore D.A. "Spencer Fullerton Baird." Popular Science Monthly. 68 (1906): 63–83.
• Dall, William Healey. "Spencer Fullerton Baird: a biography, including selections from his correspondence with Audubon, Agassiz, Dana, and others." Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company (1915).
• Goode, G. Brown. The Published Writings of Spencer Fullerton Baird, 1843-1882. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office (1883).
• Ripley, S. Dillon. "The View From the Castle: Take two freight cars of specimens, add time and energy--eventually you'll get a natural history museum." Smithsonian. 1.11 (1971): 2.
• Rivinus, Edward F. and Youssef, Elizabeth M. . Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press (1992).