His Flare For Genealogy

Famed Smithsonian Naturalist George Brown Goode had a passion for history, illustrated in such essays as "The Beginnings of Natural History in America," "The Beginnings of American Science," and "The Literary Labors of Benjamin Franklin." His flair for genealogy resulted in his book "Virginia Cousins," of which Postmaster General Wilson wrote: "Perhaps no family in this country has had so perfect a book, so complete a study of all its branches, as Doctor Goode gave to the family whose name he bore." He was an indefatigable bibliographer and an assiduous preparer of Government reports. He was interested no little in anthropology. "It would be difficult," said a colleague, "to find among those who are professional anthropologists a man who had a more exalted idea of what this science ought to be."

He assisted in the organization of the Daughters of the American Revolution and designed their seal. He died on September 6, 1896, and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown, D. C., where Joseph Henry and Spencer Fullerton Baird also lie. His unmarked grave may be found on inquiry from the caretaker; but perhaps he needs no other monument than the solid and enduring part he played in guiding the destiny of the Smithsonian Institution.

Another man who came to the Smithsonian under the aegis of Professor Baird was Robert Ridgway, who was to follow in Baird's footsteps as the foremost ornithologist of his day. He began corresponding with Baird when he was only 14 years old, and in 1867, when he was 17, he was appointed through Baird's influence as zoologist under Clarence King engaged in the geological survey of the Fortieth Parallel. At 19 he published his first paper on birds—a note on the belted kingfisher, which appeared in 1869 in the American Naturalist. The same year the Academv of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia published his "Notices of Certain Obscurely Known Species of American Birds." These formed the beginning of the hundreds of Ridgway's contributions to ornithology, extending over a period of 60 years. Ridgway's most pretentious work, which is probably the most ambitious undertaking in American systematic ornithology, was "The Birds of North and Middle America."

This catalogue, which include, technical descriptions of every form of bird known from the northern section of the Western Hemisphere, with complete synonymies, identification keys, ranges, seasonal plumages, diagnostic characters, and measurements, consumed most of his official time from 1894 until his death in 1929.

By: davidbunch

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