Publication InformationSmithsonian Institution, March 8' 1853.

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My Dear Father

I cry to part of your accusation, as I have had your letter of Jan. 4' in hand for several weeks without answering. But I was so desirous of writing you a long tiresome letter, and of telling all the news possible and impossible, that I resolved to take some quiet Sunday when Mary and the other baggage had cleared out, and left me to my quiet. Well--this quiet has not come. And so I sit down this Tuesday evening to the labor of exceeding love, determined to buckle to it like bricks. What can, however, have become of my long letter written you early in January: has it never reached, or is it perchance lying perdu in the State Department, or somewhere in Con-stan-ti-no-ple. It was a big letter, with not much in it, except love to dear Mrs. M. which it was expected you would resolutely skip.

Well, I have been rather hard at work. I cannot deny it but am now getting tolerably well through. I fear me I have much to answer for, in the way of deluding unsuspecting young (and even old) men to possible destruction from bite of snake, scorpion or centipede, engulfing in caverns while in search of fossil bone, embrace of Krakens, when catching Star fishes on the sea, or some other undescribed species of calamity--the genus, even, of which is not yet known. The string of scientific expeditions which I have succeeded in starting is perfectly preposterous. Have you any idea of the activity of our Navy and Army at present date? expeditions by field and flood? well, nearly all I have a finger, and in several, two hands. Let me recount:

sails in a week or two for the North Pacific and Behrings Straits. In command of four vessels he expects to make great discoveries of all sorts of things. Thanks to our liberal past Secretary of the Navy, Mr. J. P. Kennedy, I had full authority to prepare at expense of the Appropriation

whatever apparatus was necessary to capture all sorts of Sea Devils and Water Kelpies. Getting two enterprising and able naturalists, appointed to the expedition, one as Zoologist (Mr. Stimpson) the other as Botanist (Charles Wright) we together ransacked our brains and made out tremendous lists of nets, kettles, dredges, camp;c. amounting to near $2000.00 dollars, all of which were authorized and paid for without flinching. They go much better prepared than the old expedition (Wilkes) although with few hands, yet will undoubtedly make good return for the trouble invested

Capt. Page sailed a month ago for the Parana River and its South American surroundings. Him, I fixed nicelly: with a small steamer, he could bear but a small Natural History outfit, but he got all necessary.

Dr. Kanes Second Grinnell exped. starts for Greenland the middle of April. He will have about 250. dollars worth of traps which I am now getting in train. The Dr. was applied to by a committee from the Phila. Academy of Natural Sciences, in regard to making collections: they suggested various articles of apparatus, the aggregate somewhat bulkier than his little vessels; many of them 'a little more complex than Babbage' calculating machine. In despair he came to me and I soon made out a list of available articles, which the Secretary approved.

Lt. Couch U. S. A. left in January for a trip in Northern Mexico. He expects to stay a year and to make a huge collections of all sorts of critters. He has already sent on to us some valuable things from New Orleans and Matamoras.

I lost my dinner to-day in giving Lieut. Trowbridge, U. S. A., lessons in bird stuffing. He goes out to the Pacific coast, in a week, to take charge of certain coast survey operations. His duties call him along the coast back and forwards between San Diego and the mouth of the Columbia River. He will have several permanent stations between these two points, where his men will have abundant

opportunities. Amply fortified with copper kettles of my patent, alcohol, arsenic, tartar emetic, camp;c. he will collect, and I will get the critters of the whole Pacific coast. By the way, I have heard of several instances in which my tartar emetic, has saved the alcohol from being consumed by the men.

Capt. Marcy goes out in the Summer to Salt Lake City. After spending the winter he crosses to the Colorado, which he will descend to its mouth, passing through the unknown region of the Great Central Basin. He goes armed with all appliances

Dr. Evans makes a geological tour through Oregon with nets camp;c. to catch fish and the like -- But I must stop this, or you will get tired, though I am scarcely half through. Of private expeditions, there are hosts, scattered all over the country, and engaged in collecting grist for my mill.

As to parties, already out and the results more or less received, we have in tow, 1" the Mexican Boundary Survey with hundreds of new species of vertebrated animals, 2" Lt. Gilliss's Chilian things; most valuable they are and with much more that is nondescript; 3" Lt. Herndon's Specimens from the Amazon; 4' Capt. Marcy's collections made up Red River: 5' Reptiles of the U. S. Exploring Expedition. 6' Woodhouses gatherings while under Capt. Sitgreaves on the Zuni & Colorado River.-- c. c. For all these I have to prepare and procure reports, and for many have funds wherewith to get drawings made in highest style.

All these and more too in addition to the regular operations in the same line, of the Institution. Dont you think there is a fair prospect of our having a collection soon? But I wont say any more about these things. I only commenced to give you an ideas of some of my extra- ordinary avocations.

We are getting along very well in the Smithsonian Institution, adding prodigiously to all departments. Our Library was increased by exchange alone last year, with over 6000 volumes. This year we shall have much more. Berlin

Academy alone sent 50 quartos and the same number of octavos Lepsius big book is daily expected. You know of our having published our 3' & 4' vols. last year. The 5' is now nearly ready, and the 6' not much behind hand. The plates are under way for the 7' and 8'. We have just received Laphams Mss. of the Wisconsin Antiquities. It has more pictures than Squier & Davis. Mr. Jewett must tell you his own movements, as I have not room on my paper; he has an appropriation of 8000.00 for cataguing the Library of Congress, with stereotyped separate titles. I have made every effort in my power to secure the Camel article. Frank Churchill has been about it several times. It does not appear to have been printed, and I have instructed Frank to demand it, emphatically. Dont you dare to lay violent hands on the other matter you have written. I have already contracted with a publisher for its issue in two quarto volumes, with plates. It is going to be the most readable book of the day. Shall I put your name down as a subscriber?

The Museo civico shall be remembered, and if possible received all our publications. We distribute next batch in June. Many thanks for the hints about Auerochs and Camel. I will bear them in mind. Please let me know whether the Tuscan Camels are Bactrian or Arabian. If the former, could any be got living from the Grand Duke?

Fourth of March has come and gone, without making much stir. Our new president is very popular with all parties, so far. He goes in for manifest destiny. The new cabinet was confimed yesterday: State, War, Treasury; Navy; Attorney General; , Postmaster; Interior. All good men. I hear some Vermonters are making stout effort to have you retained! What think you is the chance. Others appear to be at work to make you senator. For my part, I go in for the latter. I want to see more than any man on earth, except Mrs. M. so I shall support the Senatorship. But I must stop, as it is getting late, and my sleepy fit is coming on. . I hope you will be satisfied with the
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amount of matter [page torn] 12 pages! Polly has given you all domestic news, I have no doubt. With warmest and truest love to Mrs. M. and yourself truly I am

Your affectionate son. Spencer

References in this letter:

Marylander Cadwalader Ringgold (1802-1867) was a naval officer and the first commanded the Rodgers and Ringgold North Pacific Exploring Expedition of 1853.

John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) served in the War of 1812 and was a representative in the Maryland House of Delegates. He was appointed Secretary of the Navy by Willard Fillmore.

The zoologist William Stimpson (1832-1872) was a student of naturalist Louis B. Agassiz and it was Agassiz who recommended him for the Rodgers and Ringgold North Pacific Exploring Expedition of 1853. He later became curator of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Charles Wright (1811-1885) was a botanist and important collector who participated in the U.S. Mexican Boundary Survey of 1848 and the Rodgers and Ringgold North Pacific Exploring Expedition of 1853. His collections, housed at the Smithsonian, allowed Asa Gray to demonstrate the resemblance of the coast of Northwest America with the coast of Japan.

Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) a controversial naval officer, led several exploring expeditions between 1838 and 1842, sailing around South America, the South Pacifc, the Pacific Northwest, and the Antarctic. He published The Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition 5 vols. in 1845 and many scientific reports. During the Civil War he was court-martialed two times. As commander of the "San Jacinto," he detained a British mail ship and arrested two Confederate commissioners, John Slidell and James M. Mason. This was against regulations, but made him a hero. He was promoted to Commodore in 1862.

Lieutenant Thomas Jefferson Page (1808-1899) commanded a three-year exploratory expedition along the La Plata and its tributaries.

Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857) was trained as a doctor and devoted to a life of exploration. Under the financial sponsorship of Henry Grinnell and the the auspices of the Navy Department he led an expedition to the Arctic.

Babbage calculating machine An English mathematician, Charles Babbage (1792-1871) designed a mechanical calculating machine that is a precursor of modern models.

Lieutenant Darius Nash Couch (1822-1897), a West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican War, participated in the Pacific Railroad Surveys of 1853, collecting specimens of birds. His collections were donated to the Smithsonian at his death.

William Petit Trowbridge (1825-1892) conducted tidal and magnetic observations for the Pacific Railroad Surveys of 1853. A graduate of West Point, he left the army in 1856 working for the U.S. Coast Survey and eventually teaching at Yale and then Columbia University. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Randolph B. Marcy led expeditions to explore the Red River in 1852 and the Big Wichita in 1854.

A medical doctor, John Evans (1812-1861) joined Owen's Suvey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota in 1848. He participated in several other expeditions and his discovery of extinct fossil bones provoked great interest.

James Melville Gilliss (1811-1865) was both a naval officer and astronomer. He was responsible for proposing and supervising the building of Naval Observatory in Washington, DC (1842-1844). In 1846 he was assigned to the U.S. Coast Survey and spent several years in Chile conducting astronomical observations. The Gilliss family, based in Washington, became close friends of the Marshes and the Bairds.

Under Navy auspices, Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon (1813-1857) and Lardner Gibbon explored the valley of the Amazon in 1851.

Samuel Washington Woodhouse (1821-1903) was a surgeon and naturalist specializing in ornithology. He participated in the U.S. Survey of the Creek Boundary Line in 1849.

Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves (1811-1888) lead a three month expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers in 1851.

German egyptologist and philologist, Karl Richard Lepsius (1810-1884) explored and excavated in the Nile valley and the Sudan. His monumental reportDenkmäler aus Agypten und Äthiopien was published between 1849 and 1859 in 12 volumes.

Increase Allen Lapham (1811-1875), was an engineer who served as State Geologist and wrote widely on the geology, botany, and archaeology of Wisconsin. He was engaged by the Antiquarian Society to make explorations, surveys and drawings of Indian mounds in that were housed at the Smithsonian Institution.

Ephraim George Squiere and Edwin Hamilton Davis. Ancient Mounuments of the Mississippi Valley. in the Smithsonian Institution Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. 1, 1848.

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.

Marsh published two works on the Camel: "The Camel," in Report of the Smithsonain Institution for 1854, 98-122. 33 Cong. 2 Sess., Sen. Misc. Doc. 24. Washington, 1855. The Camel: His Organization, Habits and Uses, considered with Reference to His Introduction into the United States. Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1856.

Franklin Pierce (1804-69), the 14th President of the United States, held the office from 1853 to 1857. His cabinet was an attempt to smooth over splits within the Democratic Party and included William L. Marcy, Stephen A. Douglas, and James Buchanan as well as Jefferson Davis and Caleb Cushing, a northerner sympathetic to slave holders. He failed to win renomination and was succeeded by Buchanan.

Democratic senator and New York governor, William Learned Marcy (1786-1857) was Secretary of War (1845-1849) under Polk and served as Secretary of State from 1853 to 1857 in Franklin Pierce's administration.

Best known as President of the Southern Confederacy, Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) fought in the Mexican War and, after losing the gubernatorial election in Mississippi, was appointed Secretary of War by President Pierce.

A Jacksonian democrat from Kentucky, James Guthrie (1792-1869) was considered a reformer. Franklin Pierce appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1853.

James Cochrane Dobbin (1814-1857) was elected to Congress in 1845 from North Carolina and appointed Secretary of the Navy by Pierce.

Caleb Cushing (1800-1879), lawyer and Whig congressman from Massachusetts was seen as sympathetic to the slave holders. He served from 1853 to 1857 in the Pierce administration as Attorney General.

In 1853, Franklin Pierce appointed James Campbell (1813-1893), attorney-general of Pennsylvania, Postmaster of the United States. He had practiced law in Pennsylvania and served as a judge.

Robert McClelland (1807-1880) served as Secretary of the Interior in the Pierce administration. He was governor of Michigan at the time of his appointment.