Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD (1823--1887)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 225 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

SPENCER See also:FULLERTON See also:BAIRD (1823--1887)  , . See also:American naturalist, was See also:born in See also:Reading, See also:Pennsylvania, on the 3rd of See also:February 1823 . He graduated at See also:Dickinson See also:College, See also:Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 184o, and next See also:year made an ornithological excursion through the mountains of Pennsylvania, walking, says one of his biographers, " 400 M. in twenty-one days, and the last See also:day 6o m." In 1838 he met J . J . See also:Audubon, and thenceforward his studies were largely ornithological, Audubon giving him a See also:part of his own collection of birds . After studying See also:medicine for a See also:time, See also:Baird became See also:professor of natural See also:history in Dickinson College in 1845, assuming also the duties of the See also:chair of See also:chemistry, and giving instruction in See also:physiology and See also:mathematics . This variety of duties in a small college tended to give him that breadth of scientific See also:interest which characterized him through See also:life, and made him perhaps the most representative See also:general See also:man of See also:science in See also:America . For the See also:long See also:period between 1850 and 1878 he was assistant-secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Washing-ton, and on the See also:death of See also:Joseph See also:Henry he became secretary . From 1871 till his death he was U.S . See also:Commissioner of See also:Fish and See also:Fisheries . While an officer of the Smithsonian, Baird's duties included the superintendence of the labour of workers in widely different lines . Thus, apart from his assistance to others, his own studies and published writings See also:cover a broad range: iconography, See also:geology, See also:mineralogy, See also:botany, See also:anthropology, general See also:zoology, and, in particular, See also:ornithology; while for a See also:series of years he edited an See also:annual See also:volume summarizing progress in all scientific lines of investigation .

He gave general superintendence, between 185o and 186o, to several See also:

government expeditions for scientific exploration of the western territories of the See also:United States, preparing for them a See also:manual of Instructions to Collectors . Of his own publications, the bibliography by G . See also:Brown Goode, from 1843 to the See also:close of 1882, includes 1063 entries, of which 775 were See also:short articles in his Annual See also:Record . His most important volumes, on the whole, were Birds, in the series of reports of explorations and surveys for a railway route from the See also:Mississippi See also:river to the Pacific ocean (1858), of which Dr See also:Elliott Cones says (as quoted in the Popular Science Monthly, xxxiii . 553) that it " exerted an See also:influence perhaps stronger and more widely See also:felt than that of any of its predecessors, Audubon's and See also:Wilson's not excepted, and marked an See also:epoch in the history of American ornithology "; Mammals of See also:North America: Descriptions based on Collections in the Smithsonian Institution (See also:Philadelphia, 1859) ; and the monumental See also:work (with See also:Thomas See also:Mayo See also:Brewer and See also:Robert Ridgway) History of North American Birds (See also:Boston, 1875–1884; " See also:Land Birds," 3 vols., " See also:Water Birds," 2 vols) . He died on the 19th of See also:August 1887 at the See also:great marine biological laboratory at See also:Woods Hole, See also:Massachusetts, an institution which was largely the result of his own efforts, and which has exercised a wide effect upon both scientific and economic See also:ichthyology .

End of Article: SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD (1823--1887)
[back]
SIR DAVID BAIRD (1757—1829)
[next]
BAIRNSDALE

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.