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Joseph Henry's Letter to Alexander Dallas Bache (August 13, 1863)

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Summary

Letter from Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to Alexander Dallas Bache, a physicist, head of the United States Coast Survey and Smithsonian Institution Regent, August 13, 1863. In the letter, Henry discusses a request he received from the Secretary of the Treasury to help combat counterfeiting of the national currency. He talks in detail about the heat in Washington, DC, and the return of Spencer F. Baird, then Assistant Secretary and later second Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to help with the printing of the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution. There is also discussion concerning a piece written by Bache about a recently departed regent, James A. Pierce, and work being done by Henry with the Navy in choosing new lights for lighthouses.

Subject

  • Bache, A. D (Alexander Dallas) 1806-1867
  • Baird, Spencer Fullerton 1823-1887
  • Regents Smithsonian Institution
  • United States Coast Survey
  • United States Navy
  • United States. Secretary of the Treasury
  • Joseph Henry Papers Project

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

The accompanying PDF contains SIA2012-2652, SIA2012-2653, SIA2012-2654, SIA2012-2655, SIA2012-2656, and SIA2012-2657, which are pages scanned from the edited transcript of the original version and notes in the Joseph Henry Papers Volume 10, pages 323-328 (Document 183).

Contained within

  • Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7053, Box 4, Folder: 8
  • Rothenberg, Marc, et al, eds., The Papers of Joseph Henry, Volume 10, The Smithsonian Years: January 1858-December 1865 (Smithsonian Institution in association with Science History Publications/USA, 2004), 323-328

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

August 13, 1863

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

  • Assistant Secretaries
  • Printing
  • Weather
  • Money
  • Letters
  • Physicists
  • Lighthouses
  • Light sources

Place

Washington (D.C.)

Form/Genre

  • Document
  • Paper

ID Number

SIA2012-2538 and SIA2012-2539 and SIA2012-2540

Physical description

Number of Images: 3 ; Color: Color ; Size: 8w x 10 1/2h ; Type of Image: Document ; Medium: Paper

Full Record

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