Letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Charles D. Walcott, February 26, 1918, Smithsonian Archives - History Div, During World War I, future President and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote a letter to fourth Smithsonian Secretary Charles D. Walcott thanking him for the list of names of water birds and waders prepared by Charles W. Richmond, an ornithologist and curator at the United States National Museum. Roosevelt had requested these names because new mine sweepers were to be given bird names..