Baird Spencer Fullerton

Baird, Spencer Fullerton, born at Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1823, received a scientific training at Dickinson College, and became professor of natural science there in 1846. In 1850 he was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, of which he ultimately became secretary. In this capacity he for many years directed the vast scientific operations of the Institute, and managed the National Museum, now one of the most important in existence. Among his best known works are A Report on the Mammals of North America, Report on Fish and Fisheries, which has led to a successful system of pisciculture, the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution and of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, besides many minor contributions to the literature of natural history. He died in 1887.