Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Baird, Spencer Fullerton
BAIRD, Spencer Fullerton, LL.D., born at Reading, Pennsylvania, Feb. 3, 1823. He was educated at Dickinson College, where he became Professor of Natural Science in 1846. In 1855 he was appointed Assistant-Secretary to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, and on the death of Professor Henry, in 1878, succeeded him as Secretary. He is editor and translator of the "Iconographic Encyclopædia," New York, 1851; is author of various papers on zoology, and of reports on natural history-collections made by Captains Stansbury and Marcy, and Lieutenant Gilliss, the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, and the Pacific Railroad Survey. He has also published, in conjunction with John Cassin, "The Birds of North America" (2 vols., 1860); and "The Mammals of North America," 1861, and in connection with Charles Girard, a "Catalogue of Serpents in North America," 1862. In 1864 he commenced a work upon the birds of the New World generally, under the title, "Review of American Birds in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution." He has, for several years, been engaged in the preparation of a new account of the birds of North America, in which he is assisted by Dr. T. M. Brewer, of Boston. In 1871 he was appointed by the President, United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, for the purpose of making inquiries into the causes of the decrease of the food fishes of the United States, and the methods of restoring them. He has published in various scientific periodicals, and in the reports, of the Smithsonian Institution, numerous papers upon the mammals, birds, and fishes of North America. He has also several years furnished to Harper's Magazine, a monthly résumé of the progress of science, and prepared an annual volume describing the advances made in science during the year.