American Fishes
American fishes: a popular treatise upon the game and food fishes of North America, with especial reference to habits and methods of capture
Ichthyologist George Brown Goode (1851-1896) spent his entire career at the Smithsonian Institution as an assistant to Spencer F. Baird, primarily responsible for administering the National Museum (when the Smithsonian had only the one location in what is now the Arts and Industries Building, next to the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall). Despite that workload, he also led research for the U.S. Fish Commission and published more than 100 scientific reports and papers. This copy of his American fishes is inscribed by Goode to Otis T. Mason (1838-1908), an ethnologist at the Museum, who had worked closely with Goode to move the collections into the museum building in the early 1880s; Mason subsequently donated it and other books to the Institution.
A late 19th century publishers' binding with a decorative stamped cover featuring a sailboat and gilt edges. The volume has a bookplate indicating the book is a gift of Otis F. Mason, curator of the Division of Ethnology. It is signed by the author on the front flyleaf.The covers are barely attached to the textblock. The head and tail of the spine are worn. Conservators will remove the cover and clean and reline the spine. The case will be repaired and the textblock re-cased in the original binding.
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Adoption Type: Preserve for the Future
