Description: Because World War I was sure to go down in history, the curator of the History Division, Theodore T. Belote, began collecting artifacts documenting the war even before it was over. As the war wound down and soldiers started returning home, Belote and his superiors at the US National Museum worked with the War Department and contacts in the Army and the Navy to document the
Description: Spencer Fullerton Baird - Smithsonian Secretary, 1878-1887 ". . . a National Museum, of which (let me whisper it) I hope to be director." -Letter from Spencer Fullerton Baird to George Perkins Marsh, Smithsonian Regent, July 2, 1853 Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), an avid naturalist and collector, served as an assistant to Secretary Joseph Henry from 1850 to 1878. This