Publication InformationWashington June 5' 1851

Page 1

My dear Mr. Marsh

I have but this instant received your welcome letter of May 3', and I hasten to answer it, and the one from the 2' Cataract of the Nile, at one heat. I am a thousand times obliged to you for writing so often, especially when you have so much else to attend to. And the enclosed letter from dear Mrs. Marsh was (shall I say it?) read twice before taking up yours at all. Mary will be delighted with her letter, and yours, when they are sent, which d. v., shall be tomorrow. I am that most unfortunate of mortals, a bachelor pro-tem, keeping a suite of rooms all alone. Mary and Lucy (Baird) have gone to Carlisle for the summer. I accompanied them to Baltimore last Tuesday, and then returned solitary and alone. They are in rather better health now than during the winter, and I hope that their mountain climate of Carlisle will do them much good. I shall visit them during Commencement week at Dickinson, June 26', and then again about the beginning of August, on which latter occasion I hope to carry them off to the sea shore, nay perhaps to the Green Hills of Vermont. I cannot tell why I should feel towards Vermont as I do, whether that it is my wifes country, and yours, or what, but on a recent run down the North River a few weeks ago (of which more anon) I sat on the upper deck of the boat all day, thinking in a perfect ecstacy of home-sickness of Lake Champlain, with its border of Mountains, of Burlington, of the Steamboats, and indeed of every thing connected in my mind with that region. It seems to me that I ought to go there this summer, probably I will: I may take Mary to Clarendon Springs, or Highgate.

As Permanent Secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, I attended the Meeting held in Cincinnati May 5', in company with Profs Henry, Bache, Coffin, Coakley, Capt. Wilkes, Sears C. Walker, and other scientific notabilities of this neighborhood. We had a capital meeting and were treated like princes, invited to revel in wine cellars, by the Longworths, Buchanans and others, tea'd, dined, and otherwise eaten and drunken. I had my hands full of business and could not participate in any of these amusements. The number of members present was very large, and some of the communications quite valuable. The Cincinnatians gave gratuitous entertainment to all who were willing to stay at private houses, and collected money enough to pay all expenses of meeting, and to publish the volume of proceedings. Not a single item was at the cost of the Association's Treasury, save my traveling expenses which I charged, as had been agreed upon. Coming back I

stopped a day with my good old friend Dr. T. P. Rutland of Cleveland, where I got an undescribed species of bird. Thence to Buffalo by steamboat, with next a touch at Niagara, and off again to Albany. Here the next meeting of the Association in August, takes place.

Wonderful now are the facilities of traveling in the west. The regular period of transit from New-York to Cincinnati, via Albany and Buffalo, is forty eight hours, the two nights being spent in comfortable state rooms of boats on North River, and Lake Erie. And now by the Erie Railroad, finished through to Dunkirk, this period is diminished some eight hours, making 40 the time. The distance by the first route is about 910 miles, by the second 875!! In one year passengers will go from Philadelphia to Cincinnati in about 28 hours! And now to resume the personal part of my discourse. I am hard at work preparing for the emission of the 2' vol. Of Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, which goes off, accompanied by hosts of companions from all parts of the country. Our proposed operations in the way of scientific international exchange, are enthusiastically welcomed by other societies, and we have received from various sources, numerous documents and other things which will be sure cards. Our friend J. C. M'Guire of Washington is to send us some 400 Patent Reports of 1847-48. We have also Jewetts Library report, just out. Best of all we have copies of Schoolcraft's Indian book for about 130 of the principal European Societies. This lot will no doubt bring back many valuable returns; as it is, you would be astonished to see the quantities of Foreign Transactions coming in almost daily. We have received over one hundred distinct parcels during the present year, embracing fully one thousand titles. The last lot is a complete series of the Memoirs of the Bavarian Academy in 17 quarto and heaven knows how many octavo volumes. This has not yet come to hand, but is in New York. We shall probably send a copy of contributors to the ; at the instance of Daniel W. Fisk now at Copenhagen. Is this right!

Dont fear for my health. I never was so stout and perhaps well, in my life. Although I work hard (from 5 AM. till I fall asleep spontaneously P.M) yet I take so much exercise as to keep me up. I have to visit all the

printers, binders, lithographers camp;c in the city almost every day, walking from one extreme of the city to the other. As a good sign, I always have a ravenous appetite. And besides I talk a great deal about going out fishing, and doing other foolish things; and at any rate I hope to have a good run next summer. As to the nature of my business, I sometimes feel as if I were wasting time in attending to these details; but then again I become reconciled in a measure, on knowing as I do, that if I do not attend to them no one will, and I flatter myself that the publications of the Smithsonian Institution could not go on without me. Mr. Jewett has his hands full of the Library and Catalogue matters, and Prof. Henry is not practical enough for such details. It is a fact that I have scarcely done a single hours work of original investigation, since my arrival, of ab-original, I will not speak, on account of that modesty which should characterize juveniles. Still, I trust a better day is coming, when I can do something, and no one would be more happy to see that time, than Prof. Henry. No one could be kinder or more considerate than he, and I flatter myself he considers his Asst. Secretary, a prize in a small way.

Are not you getter tired of this prosy letter, written when I should have been in bed an hour ago, but for your epistle. To come to an end, however, I will carefully follow all your directions about vessels, c., and will indicate on a separate slip some additional desiderata.

I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing Master Wizlieenus, though I understand from Mister W. that he is a wonderful individual, in fact something remarkable. Of the accuracy of this impression, coming from such a source there can, of course be no question. Mrs. W. is not yet allowed to see company but is doing well. And now with inexpressible love to dear Mrs. M. and plenty of the same to yourself Goodby.

from your affectionateS F BairdHon. Geo. P. MarshU.S. Minister ResidentConstantinople

I met old Pres. Wheeler in Cincinnati, who begged me to visit him in Burlington, and promised to go fishing to any extent, would take one end of the seine, with me at the other, and wade into the deep waters. Two storks!

References in this letter:

Latin: Deo Volente, meaning "God willing"

The first national scientific body in the United States, the American Association for the Advancement of Science was founded in 1848.

Trained as a physicist, Joseph Henry (1797-1878) was professor of natural philosophy at Princeton University where he conducted original research on electricity and magnetism. When the Smithsonian Institution was created, he was chosen as its first Secretary. From 1846 to 1878 Henry established basic policies and defined the scope of the Smithsonian's activities.

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.

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.

George Washington Coakley (1814-1893) was a professor of astronomy and mathematics.

Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) commanded the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. He became a popular figure during the Civil War by he seizing the Confederate commissioners Mason and Slidell from a British ship.

The astromer and mathematician Sears Cook Walker (1805-1853) was appointed to the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC from 1845 to 1847. Between 1847 and 1853 he was director of longitude computations for the office of the U.S. Coast Survey.

In 1847 Joseph Henry proposed a publishing program for the Smithsonian Institution to honor Smithson's bequest for the increase and diffusion of knowledge. In 1849, the first volume, edited by Marsh, was published in a series called "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge." This volume was distributed to 173 foreign institutions and marked the beginning of the Smithsonian's exchange network. Subsequent monographs were based on original scientific work sponsored by the Smithsonian and on Smithsonian collections. The series was apparently conceived as part of a larger series called "Transactions of the Institution."

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, A bibliographical catalogue of publications in the Indian tongues. Washington, 1849. Memoirs of the Bavarian Academy Stiftisbokasafn at Reykjavik Iceland.

Registr yfir Íslands Stiftisbókasafn, Kaupmannahüfn, 1828.

Daniel Willard Fisk was a scholar of the Icelandic language and culture and the author of Icelandic Notes (Berlin, 1880) and Iceland's Literary Establishment (Berlin, 1880).

Frederick Adolph Wislizenus (1810-1889), a German born physician, emigrated to the United States in 1835. He published a scientific account of his trip to Chihuahua, Mexico in Memoirs of a Tour to Northern Mexico, Connected with Colonel Doniphan's Expedition in 1846 and 1847. (Washington: Tippin and Streeper, 1848). In 1850 he married Lucy Crane, Caroline Crane Marsh's sister; they settled in St. Louis where he practiced medicine.

The Rev. Dr. John Wheeler (1789-1862) was president of the University of Vermont from 1833 to 1848. He offered Baird the chair of Chemistry and Natural History in December 1847.