Description: The Archives was recently gifted an 1860 letter from Spencer F. Baird, second Secretary of the Smithsonian, to George N. Lawrence, fellow naturalist. The donor requested that, along with a digital version, a transcription be provided, which I undertook alongside a simple treatment. The letter was in overall excellent condition: the thin paper exhibited only a pair of small
Description: [view in Spanish]Doña María do Carmo Bandeira was a botanist with the Jardim Botanico de Rio de Janeiro, specializing on mosses. She served on the editorial board of its Arquivos do Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro. In the late 1920s, she established a correspondence with Mary Agnes Chase, curator of grasses in the U.S. National Museum. They exchanged plant specimens and