Publication InformationRome Oct 2 74

Page 1

Dear Baird

I have just made up a box of documents for the government to go by way of the Desp. Agt N.Y. In it is a package addressed to you containing all the Nos of the Bolletino Archeologica yet issued, 1873, I-VI 1874 III. One of the most unexpected discoveries is that of one or two table forks. [...] generally supposes to be quite modern, but I am told that Caylus describes one found a century ago, under circumstances which warranted the belief that it was ancient.

Well, it is a small matter, but in these excavations multitudes of small discoveries are made

every day tending to show that the Old Romans did not differ much from the modern. Still, the forkeaters, or [coryate?] says Whitaker called him for using a fork, could not have been many.

I see by the Nation that there has been published a Report of a Committee of Congress on Forests 120 pp 8 vo. I don't expect much from it, but I it, I it. Couldn't you send it by mail? You shall have your reward.

Yours trulyG P Marsh

Prof Baird

References in this letter:

Archaeological Bulletin of the Muncipality of Rome Rome. Commissione Archeologica. Bulletino: 1872-1920.

The Comte de Caylus (1692-1765) was a French amateur engraver, writer and antiquarian. Diderot called him an "acrid collector of worthless ancient fragments" but he is now regarded as a pioneer in the study of everyday objects of antiquity and for his interest in ancient technology. (Dictionary of Art,VI: 120-121.)

The Nation was founded in 1865 by Edwin Lawrence Godkin (1831-1902), a native of Ireland who emigrated to the United States in 1856.

Franklin Benjamin Hough, Cutivation of Timber and Preservation of Forests,/ULINE>. Washington, 1874. (U.S. House of Representatives, 43 Congress, 2 Session, Report 259.)