This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
^[[underline, upper left]] Copy in report[[/underline]] for 1885 Jan-June]] ^[[underline, upper right]] [[L.5?]] [[underline]]1885 Envelope[[/underline]] ^[[for 1885 rep [[underline]]35 – 60[[/underline]] [[Double underline]] An Historical Sketch of the growth of the Collection of Recent Mammalia from its origin to the present year [[/double underline]] [[underline]]Foundation of the collection.[[/underline]] Prior to the year 1850 there had been no organized effort on the part of the Smithsonian Institution to form a collection of national objects[[subscript]]x[[/subscript]] and geological specimens, however, were received from various sources, and these in [[strikethru]][[?]][[/strikethru]] reality form the nucleus about which the great collections of later years have the [[strikethru]]formed[[/strikethru]] grown – the mammalia formed a very inconsiderable part of this fortuitous collection. The skeleton of a taiga antelope, the skull and horns of a Big horn, the antlers of a Mule deer and a skull of a Pronghorn antelope were all that Prof. Baird found upon taking charge of the collection in 1850.