Timeline of Ornithological History at the Smithsonian 1846-1875

1846 - The Smithsonian Institution was created. Joseph Henry was the first secretary.

1850 - Spencer Fullerton Baird, a disciple of John James Audubon, was hired by Henry to be the Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Baird was 27 years old at the time.

1857 - The National Institution's collections were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution

1858 - The 9th volume of Pacific Railway Reports by Baird, Cassin & Lawrence was published. In 1867, this became the first technical ornithology paper that Robert Ridgway owned.

1860 - Elliott Coues published his first ornithological paper, "A monograph of the Trineae of North America." He described and named a new species of sandpiper in this paper, it was his first new species, Actodromas bairdii Coues.

1864 - At age 14, Robert Ridgway began a correspondence with Baird. Ridgway would send descriptions and watercolor drawings of birds and Baird would reply with a Scientific and common name for the birds Ridgway described.

1865 - A fire destroyed the roof and all the interior of the upper story of the main Smithsonian Institution Building, as well as the interior of the two large north towers, and large south tower.

1865 - Baird presents "Distribution and Migration of north American Birds" before the National Academy of Sciences.

1866 - Spencer Baird publishes first review of migratory bird patterns in North America.

1867 - Baird invited Robert Ridgway to come to Washington to start collecting for the Smithsonian Institution. Ridgway accepted the invitation and was offered a zoologist position with the Geological Survey of the Fortieth Parallel. Ridgway was 17 years old.

1871 - Henry Wetherbee Henshaw and William Brewster started meeting one evening a week to read Audubon's Birds out loud. These were the early meetings of what was to become the Nuttall Ornithology Club, so named 2 years later. Many Smithsonian ornithologists were involved with the club.

1871 - The U.S. Bureau of Fisheries was established, Spencer F. Baird was the first commissioner.

1872 – Elliot Coues publishes his famous Key to North American Birds. This work was a concise account of every known living and fossil bird from the area at the time. The work included 6 steel plates and over 250 woodcuts.

1874 - Coues published a "Field Ornithology and a check-list of North American birds" as a supplement to the key.

1874 - The first volume of A History of North American Birds was published, authored by Spencer Baird, William Brewer, and Robert Ridgway

1874 - Robert Ridgway appointed as a Smithsonian ornithologist, in 1875 he was put in charge of the ornithological division.

1844 - Great Auk goes extinct, the last breeding pair and egg were taken from Eldey Island, Iceland.

1851 - John James Audubon died.

1859 –Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species

1860 – Henry David Thoreau gives a speech to the Middlesex Agricultural Society, entitled "The Succession of Forest Trees." He analyzed the aspects of what is now understood to be the discipline of forest ecology and he urged farmers to plant trees in natural patterns of succession.

1861 – First Archaeopteryx fossil discovered in Germany

1865 – Mendel elucidates the mechanisms of genetic inheritance

1866 – The word "ecology" is coined by Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist.

1872 - Yellowstone National Park was established, it was the first national park in the world.

1846 - Mexican War began, it ended in 1848. The U.S. gained most of what now encompasses the Southwestern states as a result of this conflict.

1849 - Frederic Chopin dies.

1850 - The Republic of California becomes a state

1857 - The Supreme Court ruled (7-2) against African Americans in the Dred Scott Case.

1860 - South Carolina Seceded from the union, ten more states followed.

1863 - Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address

1865 - 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlaws slavery.

1865 - Walt Whitman was fired from his job with the Department of the Interior when it was discovered that he was the author of Leaves of Grass. Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

1866 - U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act to protect the rights of freed slaves.

1867 - Belmont Stakes was first run. The event was held in Jerome Park, NY until 1889 when it was moved to Morris Park, NY.

1871 - The Great Chicago fire burned much of Chicago, this paved the way for the development of sky scrapers.

1873 - Blue jeans were patented by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis.