Publication InformationWashington October 14 1865

Page 1

My Dear Mr Marsh

Your letter of Aug. 2. with its enclosure of corrections was duly received, with many thanks for the trouble you have taken to aid our "Catalogue"

We returned home last Monday after an absence since the middle of July, mostly spent at Eastport, Me. and vicinity. Mary seems unusually well now, better than for several years and I trust will continue so. -- Lucy is however very delicate and does not improve at all.

Repairs of the burnt portion of the Smithsonian building are progressing and by winter the towers will be finished and ready for occupancy. When we can do any thing with the main building, is hard to tell.

Mrs. Gilliss has returned to town and is I hear in her own home again. I have not had time yet to see her. James was married a few days ago to Miss Annie Stelwagen.

Prof Bache is, I fear slowly getting worse, mind and body. I presume there is not the least hope

of his recovery. He has been in the vicinity of New York since his return. Considerable interest is felt as to his successor.

Our Natural History operations are progressing quite after the old rate, and I have my hands full with the operations of the Russian Telegraph Co. which has a large corps of collectors headed by Kennicott. Minor operations are going on in Yucatan, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Western Mexico etc.

I sent you last summer the first 320 pp. of my new work on the birds of North and Middle America, (to Isthmus Panama, and including West Indies). The bird-critics are pleased to speak in very favorable terms of it.

With much love from M. & L. to Mrs. M. and yourself I am

Affectionately yoursSpencer F Baird

Hon. Geo P Marsh
Florence

Lucy is greatly obliged by your contributions to her autograph book--the Mrs. Somerville pleased her very much

References in this letter:

Lucy Hunter Baird, 1848-1913, the only child of Spencer Fullerton and Mary Helen Churchill Baird. She shared her father's interests in the natural world. As a child, Lucy had, as a pet, a large black snake, whose tail touched the ground when held by Lucy, sitting on her father's shoulders. It was her memoirs and reminisces which formed the majority of the William H. Dall biography of her father.

Architect James Renwick, Jr. of New York designed the Smithsonian in Romanesque style. It was 447 feet long and 160 feet wide, with nine towers. By 1849 the east wing was habitable and the building was substantially completed in 1854; it was finished in 1857. In 1865, however, it was seriously damaged by fire and required extensive repairs.

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.

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.

Russian founded the first permanent settlement in Alaska in 1784 and in 1799 granted a trade monopoly to the Russian American Company. The territory was sold to the United States in 1867 through the significant efforts of the Secretary of State, William H. Seward.

Spencer F. Baird, "with the cooperation of" John Cassin and George N. Lawrence, The Birds of North America. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1860.