Meek at Albany, 1852-58

F. B. Meek served as James Hall's salaried assistant and draughtsman at Albany during 1852-58. In aiding Hall's "Palaeontology of New-York" and other projects, Meek gained experience in field work, curation, research, illustration, and publication that he developed in collaboration with F. V. Hayden and others to fulfill Hall's promise to make Meek an original investigator in paleontology. A dispute with Hall about scientific identity and integrity, rekindled by the Permian controversy, ended Meek's years at Albany. In 1858, Meek joined Hayden at Washington and continued work in paleontology and stratigraphy at the Smithsonian, under contract to the Federal and several state governments.