Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_9654,size=225,left]Spencer Fullerton Baird was a visionary and can be rightfully credited as a co-creator of the Megatherium Club. Through his position as Assistant Secretary at the Smithsonian, and then Secretary in 1878, Baird corresponded with many of the great naturalists and explorers of his time, in hopes that they would help build the
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_arc_391599,size=250,left] “[T]he paleontologist is a queer character,” Robert Kennicott notes in his letter “Folks at Home”. “Indeed he [Meek] is very excellent and Honorable gentleman with fine feelings and extremely modest though he is now one of our best Paleontologists.”Meek was born on December 10, 1817 in Madison, Indiana, along with a brother and
Description: When I was preparing to begin my internship at the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA), I wasn’t quite sure what I would be doing. I knew that I would be working in the Institutional History Division (IHD), and I knew that I would be helping to prepare oral history interviews to be sent off for transcription. During my senior year as an undergraduate student, I had dealt
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="220" caption="Many scientists lived in the Smithsonian Institution Building in its early years. These four young naturalists lived in the building and often collected for the Smithsonian while on exploring expeditions in the mid-nineteenth century. Clockwise from upper left: Robert Kennicott, Henry Ulke, Henry Bryant and William