Baird, Spencer Fullerton

Baird, Spencer Fullerton

(1823–87) zoologist, naturalist; born in Reading, Pa. A protégé of John J. Audubon while a student at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, he attended medical school before turning to natural history. In 1850 he became assistant secretary (later secretary, 1878–87) of the Smithsonian Institution, where he directed the research and collections program while concurrently publishing a series of monographs, including Mammals of North America (1859) and, with two collaborators, History of North American Birds (1875–84). The first U.S. commissioner of fish and fisheries, he founded the marine biological laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.