SI Records
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 57, Smithsonian Institution, Assistant Secretary in charge of the United States National Museum, Records
Spencer Fullerton Baird was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1850, with primary responsibility for the direction of the United States National Museum. The title "Assistant Secretary" was not reserved for the administrator of the museum; and throughout the history of the Institution there have been officials known as Assistant Secretaries who had other duties. During the 1940s the title, Assistant Secretary was permanently attached to other duties, and the responsibility for the museum fell to an official known as Director, United States National Museum.
These records document the tenures of Assistant Secretaries Spencer Fullerton Baird, 1850-1881; and G. Brown Goode, 1881-1896, including the years 1881-1887 when he served as Assistant Director of the Museum without the title of Assistant Secretary.
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