This field naturalist received the greater part of Audubon's collection of birds in 1842, in exchange for mammals. While professor of Natural History at Dickinson College, 1845-1850, he originated the field trip technique of teaching. He was subsequently made assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and through that particular position was able to influence the founding of the National Museum, the U. S. Fish Commission, and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass. After becoming a corresponding member of the Academy in 1842 he was always active in its interests. A typescript of a letter to Thomas B. Wilson written June 1846? from Carlisle, Pennsylvania regarding Wilson's purchase of the Rivoli collection of birds. (The letter is published in William Healey Dall's book, “Spencer Fullerton Baird” p. 137-139.) Also a letter from Mary K. Baker 1910, secretary of the Spencer F. Baird Ornithological Club, with a copy of the Society's constitution.