1846
Smithsonian Institution Created
After a decade of debate about how best to
spend a bequest left to America from an obscure English scientist, President
James K. Polk signs the Smithsonian Institution Act into law.
In 1829, James Smithson died in Italy, leaving
behind a will with a peculiar footnote. In the event that his only nephew died
without any heirs, Smithson decreed that the whole of his estate would go to
“the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the
Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of
knowledge.” Smithson’s curious bequest to a country that he had never visited
aroused significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic.
Smithson had been a fellow of the venerable
Royal Society of London from the age of 22, publishing numerous scientific
papers on mineral composition, geology, and chemistry. In 1802, he overturned
popular scientific opinion by proving that zinc carbonates were true carbonate
minerals, and one type of zinc carbonate was later named smithsonite in
his honor.
Six years after his death, his nephew, Henry
James Hungerford, indeed died without children, and on July 1, 1836, the U.S.
Congress authorized acceptance of Smithson’s gift. President Andrew Jackson
sent diplomat Richard Rush to England to negotiate for transfer of the funds,
and two years later Rush set sail for home with 11 boxes containing a total of
104,960 gold sovereigns, 8 shillings, and 7 pence, as well as Smithson’s
mineral collection, library, scientific notes, and personal effects. After the
gold was melted down, it amounted to a fortune worth well over $500,000. After
considering a series of recommendations, including the creation of a national
university, a public library, or an astronomical observatory, Congress agreed
that the bequest would support the creation of a museum, a library, and a
program of research, publication, and collection in the sciences, arts, and
history. On August 10, 1846, the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution
was signed into law by President James K. Polk.
Today, the Smithsonian is composed of 19
museums and galleries including the recently announced National Museum of
African American History and Culture,nine research facilities throughout the
United States and the world, and the national zoo. Besides the original
Smithsonian Institution Building, popularly known as the “Castle,” visitors to
Washington, D.C., tour the National Museum of Natural History, which houses the
natural science collections, the National Zoological Park, and the National
Portrait Gallery. The National Museum of American History houses the original
Star-Spangled Banner and other artifacts of U.S. history. The National Air and
Space Museum has the distinction of being the most visited museum in the world,
exhibiting such marvels of aviation and space history as the Wright brothers’
plane and Freedom 7, the space capsule that took the first American into
space. John Smithson, the Smithsonian Institution’s great benefactor, is interred
in a tomb in the Smithsonian Building.