Publication InformationWashington June 7 49

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Daughter Mary

I confess the soft impeachment. We are treacherous (not voluntarily, but neccesarily) in the matter of the promised visit. Seriously I do not think Mrs M. could bear to travel ten miles, or even five, by coach. She must go to Burlington, & needs the remainder of the time to [...] under the care of Dr Vandeveer at Plattsburgh. We shall sail in a few weeks, & go by way of London. If possible we shall go through Germany & France by steam

boat & RRoad to the Mediterranean, & so by water to Constantinople. We leave tomorrow morning, & hope to reach N.Y. on Monday.

I write in haste unspeakable, but will make it up when I shall have seen the Grand Turk and now, dear Mary, wish love from me & mine to you & yours, farewell.

Yours trulyG P Marsh

Dear Baird

I believe you must disgorge Kröyer. Send it if you please, to Garrigue's for me. What can I do for you in Turkey? I think it will be all right [line missing] the Smith

sonian. Jewett will do all he can, & if Mr Bache is right there will be no trouble. Henry is here, but is a very punctual correspondent.

Yours truly

G P M
P.S. I have seen young [Cuyler?] & like him. No Sec. is allowed to the Turkish mission except the Dragoman, who will not be removed, & of course I can do nothing for Mr C. The appointment is by the President & Senate

References in this letter:

Henrik Nikolai Krøyer, author of Danmarks Fiske (1838); De danske Österbanker; Grundtræk af Zoologien (1838).

Charles Rudolph Garrigue, a New York publisher, obtained the plates to F. A. Brockhaus's Bilder Atlas zum Conversations Lexicon (Leipzig) with the intention of republishing them with an English text. Marsh suggested that Baird translate and revise the work. It was a massive undertaking on which Baird spent four years. Published in 1852 as The Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature, and Art, it established Baird's reputation.

Charles Coffin Jewett (1816-1868), a distinguished librarian from Brown University, was appointed senior assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1848. He and Joseph Henry were continually in conflict over the importance of the library within the Institution's mandate and he was fired by the Board in 1855. He later became superintendent of the Boston Public Library.

The geophysicist Alexander Dallas Bache (1806-1867) served as Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey from 1843 to 1867 and was one of the influential members of the Smithsonian Board of Regents from 1846 through the 1859 term.