The New International Encyclopædia/Baird, Spencer Fullerton

BAIRD, Spencer Fullerton (1823-87). An American naturalist. He was born at Reading, Pa., February 3, 1823, of English and German parentage, and died at Woods Hole, Mass., August 10, 1887. He graduated from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., in 1840, and in 1842 studied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. During these earlier years he had formed valuable and influential acquaintanceships with Audubon and Agassiz, and other leaders of American zoölogy, in much of whose work he was a collaborator. In 1845 he was elected professor of the natural sciences in Dickinson College, but continued his original work. He became assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1850, and entered upon his life-work. This was the period of an extensive exploration of the western half of the United States, and Baird had charge of the energetic efforts made under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution to carry on a scientific investigation coincident with the geographical exploration of that region, and of the formulation and publication of the results in the reports of the Pacific Railway surveys and elsewhere. He also stimulated private research and the deposit of objects in the care of the Smithsonian, thus laying the foundation of the National Museum, which was organized (1857) and developed by him. Upon the death of Joseph Henry in 1878, he became secretary of the Smithsonian, and still farther advanced its work and collections in the direction of zoölogy and American archæology. Meanwhile he had been urging the need of the investigation and conservation of the fishes and fisheries of the United States, and through his action Congress created in 1874 the Commission of Fish and Fisheries, appointing Professor Baird its first commissioner, an office which he retained until his death, and wherein he organized the entire science and practice of fish culture (q.v.) in the United States, and made it a model that has been widely copied in other countries.

In the dual relation which he sustained to two great branches of public scientific work, increased by his constant editing and writing for the press, Baird exerted an influence more extensive and stimulative than was exercised by any man of his time. He trained a large number of men who have reached great usefulness and fame in various departments of scientific and economic natural history, and is affectionately remembered by a great circle of students for his helpful kindness and encouragement. A complete bibliography of the titles of his works and papers to 1882 was compiled by G. Brown Goode and published as Bulletin No. 20 of the United States National Museum (Washington, 1883). It contains 1063 titles, to which the product of five more years is to be added. He edited the Smithsonian Reports from 1878, and several Reports of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, to which he also contributed many special papers. Among the more important of his publications are: Catalogue of North American Reptiles (1853); Birds of America (with Cassin, 1860); Mammals of North America (1859); History of American Birds (with Brewer and Ridgway, 1874-84).