Spencer Fullerton Baird (February 3, 1823 – August 19, 1887) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and museum curator.
School period
Gallery of Spencer Baird
West Nottingham Academy, Colora, Maryland, United States
As a young boy Spencer Baird attended Nottingham Academy in Port Deposit, Maryland.
College/University
Gallery of Spencer Baird
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, United States
Baird attended Dickinson College and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees, finishing the former in 1840.
Gallery of Spencer Baird
the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Manhattan, New York, United States
After graduation from Dickinson College Spencer Baird moved to New York City with an interest in studying medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Career
Gallery of Spencer Baird
1840
Portrait of Spencer Baird, second Secretary (1878-1887) of the Smithsonian Institution, as a young man.
Gallery of Spencer Baird
1845
Spencer Fullerton Baird seated
Gallery of Spencer Baird
1860
Spencer Fullerton Baird Seated in Chair, by Unknown, c. 1860s, Smithsonian Archives - History Div, 10737 or MAH-10737.
Gallery of Spencer Baird
Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), ornithologist, was the first director of the United States National Museum and the second Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1878-1887). This photographic portrait of Baird seated in a chair was taken shortly before his death in 1887.
Achievements
Membership
American Antiquarian Society
1880 - 1887
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
In 1880 Baird was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.
the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Manhattan, New York, United States
After graduation from Dickinson College Spencer Baird moved to New York City with an interest in studying medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), ornithologist, was the first director of the United States National Museum and the second Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1878-1887). This photographic portrait of Baird seated in a chair was taken shortly before his death in 1887.
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
In 1880 Baird was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.
Connections
Wife: Mary Helen Churchill 1821–1891
Mary Helen Baird (Churchill)
Daughter: Lucy Hunter Baird 1848-1913
Lucy Hunter Fullerton Baird
collaborator: Charles Girard
colleague: Joseph Henry
Joseph Henry (December 17, 1797 – May 13, 1878) was an American scientist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
colleague: George Brown Goode
colleague: Clinton Hart Merriam
Clinton Hart Merriam (December 5, 1855 – March 19, 1942) was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ethnographer, and naturalist.
colleague: Robert Ridgway
Robert Ridgway (July 2, 1850 – March 25, 1929) was an American ornithologist specializing in systematics. He was appointed in 1880 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to be the first full-time curator of birds at the United States National Museum.
colleague: William Healey Dall
William Healey Dall (August 21, 1845 – March 27, 1927) was an American naturalist, a prominent malacologist, and one of the earliest scientific explorers of interior Alaska. He described many mollusks of the Pacific Northwest of America, and was for many years America's preeminent authority on living and fossil mollusks.
(The class of Birds (Aves), as represented in the present ...)
The class of Birds (Aves), as represented in the present age of the world, is composed of very many species, closely related among themselves and distinguished by numerous characters common to all. For the purposes of the present work it is hardly necessary to attempt the definition of what constitutes a bird, the veriest tyro being able to decide as to the fact in regard to any North American animal.
Spencer Fullerton Baird was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and museum curator. His work in ornithology was characterized by an insistence on accuracy of description, and his numerous scientific contributions include works on North American birds, reptiles, and mammals. Baird was also the first curator to be named at the Smithsonian Institution.
Background
Spencer Fullerton Baird was born on February 3, 1823, in Reading, Pennsylvania. Baird’s father was Samuel Baird, a lawyer of local prominence; his mother was the former Lydia MacFunn Biddle of Philadelphia. His father was a big influence on Baird's interest in nature, taking Baird on walks and gardening with him. He died of cholera when Baird was ten years old. Upon Samuel’s death in 1833, Lydia and her seven children moved to Carlisle.
Education
As a young boy Spencer Baird attended Nottingham Academy in Port Deposit, Maryland and public school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Baird entered Dickinson College in 1836, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1840 and an Master of Arts in 1843. Since the United States lacked institutions offering professional training in science, Baird’s education consisted of self-study and informal instruction from established naturalists, including James Dwight Dana, John James Audubon, and George N. Lawrence. After graduation from Dickinson College he moved to New York City with an interest in studying medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
In November 1841, Baird went to New York City to study medicine, but two months later he abandoned his studies and returned to Carlisle, determined to pursue a career in zoology despite the limited opportunities then available to American biologists.
In 1846 Baird became a professor of natural history at Dickinson College. In 1850 Baird’s writings in systematic zoology; his translation and revision of the four-volume Iconographic Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature, and Arts, compiled in cooperation with many leading American scientists; and recommendations from politicians and scientists secured his appointment as assistant to Joseph Henry at the Smithsonian Institution. For the next thirty-seven years, Baird used numerous governmental expeditions, plus a network of private collectors, to bring distinguished zoological and anthropological collections to the Smithsonian’s National Museum.
Baird became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1864, over the opposition of Louis Agassiz, who had personal differences with Baird and also contended that, as a descriptive biologist, Baird contributed no new knowledge to science. In 1871 Congress established the U.S. Fish Commission under Baird’s direction. This agency conducted basic research in marine biology, propagated food fishes, and aided the fishing industry. In 1878 he succeeded Joseph Henry as secretary of the Smithsonian, a position he held until his death.
In 1874 Baird, assisted by Thomas M. Brewer and Robert Ridgway, published his major work, a three-volume study of land birds entitled A History of North American Birds. Baird and Ridgway prepared the technical descriptions while Brewer, working primarily from field notes forwarded to the Smithsonian by Baird’s collectors, contributed accounts of the habits of individual species. The History was notable for presenting the first comprehensive information on the behavior of birds in Arctic breeding grounds.
Baird’s significance as a teacher and as a molder of scientific institutions was probably greater than his personal scientific work. He was the patron of numerous naturalists who collected for him or studied informally at the Smithsonian. Among his most important protégés were George Brown Goode, C. Hart Merriam, Robert Ridgway, and William Healey Dali. Baird’s simultaneous direction of the U.S. Fish Commission, the U.S. National Museum, and the Smithsonian during the last ten years of his life indicates his influence on American scientific institutions. From 1871 through 1887, the Fish Commission’s research ships and volunteer scientists undertook the first sustained biological study of American waters.
The U.S. National Museum, along with Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, were the leaders in American zoology during this period. The Smithsonian, under Baird’s administration, was no longer restrained by its modest private income. In contrast with Joseph Henry, who feared that government funds would lead to political interference, Baird did not hesitate to seek congressional appropriations to expand the work of the Smithsonian.
Spencer Fullerton Baird died on August 19, 1887. Upon Baird's death, the Arts and Industries building was draped with a mourning cloth. Baird is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Spencer Baird gradually drifted from his Protestant upbringing, and after 1875 did not attend religious services.
Membership
Baird became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1864. He was also a member of the Megatherium Club. In 1880 Baird was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.
American Antiquarian Society
,
United States
1880 - 1887
Personality
Baird was noted for his serenity and modesty, but in his private dealings he was forceful and persistent in pursuing his ambitions.
Connections
In 1846 Spencer Fullerton Baird married Mary Helen Churchill, a daughter of a well-known army officer. Lucy Hunter Baird, the couple’s only child, was born in 1848. Baird's wife, Mary, donated his stamp collection to the National Museum.