Publication InformationSmithsonian InstitutionWashington Jan. 20 1852

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My Dear Mr. Marsh:

Do not measure my affection by the length of the epistles I write, but inversely--. If I had a dozen hands, I would keep one going all the time in writing news to you, but I havent, and so I must be content with one every month. My business here is such an unvarying round of the same thing that I never have any thing novel to communicate, and I never could tell of the affairs of other people. We are getting along very well at the Institution, the Regents well satisfied and I think quite proud of us. The departure of Mr. Hilliard was supplied by Mr. Meacham of Middlebury Vt. whom I have not yet seen, as he has attended no meetings. The board has been in session for several weeks, and will probably meet half a dozen times before finishing. I hope they will raise my salary to 2000. or more. I am not very conceited, but I think that one who rises betimes, to the business of any Body, and falls asleep at night over its work, averaging 12 hours a day constant employment in winter and 15 in winter, deserves more and earns more than for mere six hour duty from nine to three. And the worst of it is that I cannot work less time. The amount is too great, and my interest in my labors to earnest to allow me to feel free after usual office hours. In fact I am much worse off pecuniarily than at Carlisle. There I could make 1000 or 1500 dollars extra at translating with a salary of 1000, on half of which I could live. I now fall behind hand on 1500. But I wont bother you with such stuff.

Mary in her letter has told you all the news personal and local, which I need not repeat, especially as I know nothing of such matters myself. Our lectures here are going off finely, being attended by crowds every night. Prof. W. B. Rogers of Va. has just finished a course on "Phases of the Atmosphere" which has been well received. The Sillimans

Prof. Felton and others come on next. Our second volume of Smithsonian contributions you have seen. The third and fourth will be published next spring. The fourth will be occupied entirely by a grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language, about 400 pages. So you see we are not idle.

Your memorandum about barometers and thermometers has been attended to, and I presume Green has sent them before this.

Prof. Henry wrote you that extracts from you letter had been sent to Sillimans Journal, and printed without giving your name, and of course striking out the "secrets." I hope you will write much more of a similar character to us. Are you going to write a book? Why not? You will make the best one ever attempted on this country, you are in, and your friends have a right to expect it. will put in a Natural History Appendix. How continue the collections. Dont forget the camel skeletons and all other such things. Any skulls or skeletons, man or beast. Fishes and reptiles too as usual. Halderman would like a few insects, and Dr. Brewer of the Boston Atlas, an ardent oologist, wants birds esp. So see that you satisfy all these desiderata. Dont be distressed about the last keg. The things came well: the [...] pöckelung was quite sufficient. I send the last report. It has only been out a few weeks. Jewett is hard at work. He cries peccavi and will do better anon, when he has time. Iconographic is done, and meets with much favor. Garrigue is into the third edition. He is now here canvassing for subscribers.

What think you of the burning of the Library of Congress? Is not this a go? Some talk of sending Jewett to buy a new one.

When are you coming home? I am tired of having you away longer. If I were a politician I would petition for your recal. I am praying for the election of a Low, that he may order you home. Dont lose any time therefore in getting specimens enough to last. With warmest love to Mrs Marsh I remain most sincerely

YoursS F Baird.Hon. Geo. P. Marsh.Constantinople.

References in this letter:

Henry Washington Hilliard (1808-1892), Representative from Alabama, served on the Smithsonian Board of Regents from 1846 through the 1850 term.

James Meacham (1810-1856), a Vermont Whig, replaced Marsh in 1849 when Marsh left Congress to take up his post as Minister to Turkey. Meacham was appointed to the Smithsonian Board to Regents in 1852.

William Barton Rogers (1804-1882)was appointed Virginia State Geologist and taught natural philosophy and geology at the University of Virginia. He later became the first president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was professor of physics and geology.

Professor of chemistry and natural history at Yale College, Benjamin Silliman (1779-1844) played an important role in encouraging scientific studies in 19th century America. In 1818 he founded and edited the American Journal of Science and Arts, commonly known as Silliman's Journal of Science.

Cornelius C. Felton (1807-1862) was professor of Greek at Harvard; in 1860 he was made president of the College.

Stephen Return Riggs, Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1852. Smithsonian Contribution to Knowledge, v. 4; Smithsonian Institution Publication 40.

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 entomologist Samuel Stehman Haldemann (1812-1880) was professor of Natural Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Marsh sent him specimens from Constantinople.

Thomas Mayo Brewer (1814-1880) and William Hayden published The Boston Weekly Atlas from 1845 to 1857.

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.

Latin: I have sinned.

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.

On the night of December 24, 1851 a fire broke out in the Library of Congress. Over two third of the collection was destroyed, including 35,000 books, the complete map collection and many works of art.