In 1765, Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie moved to Paris from England to give birth to her illegitimate son in secret. James Lewis Macie was the son of Macie and her lover Hugh Smithson, the first Duke of Northumberland. There was, however, a caveat to his name. Elizabeth Macie made her son promise that when she died, he would change his last name to Smithson. This he did in 1801, a year after her passing. Smithson, who was born in Paris and died in Genoa, became a naturalized British citizen around the age of 10.
Model T Ford parked in front of the Smithsonian's National Museum in 1926. National Photo Company. Library of Congress. (Public Domain)
In 1782, young Macie (still his name at this point), began studying science at Pembroke College, Oxford. In 1787, only a year after graduation, he became a member of the Royal Society of London where many of his papers on chemistry and mineralogy were published.
Eventually, the wealthy and successful scientist and bachelor would leave his money and estate to his nephew Henry James Hungerford. If Hungerford had children, the inheritance would be disseminated to them. If Hungerford did not have children, however, Smithson made the interesting and rather mysterious decision to bequeath all his wealth (save the annual amount of £100 that was set aside for his servant John Fitall) “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men.”
Smithson died in 1829. Six years later, the childless Hungerford died. When the United States was notified of Smithson’s bequest, President Andrew Jackson requested Congress initiate the acquisition of the estate. After debating the issue, Congress agreed to accept Smithson’s gift. Richard Rush, the son of American founder Benjamin Rush and eventual U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of the Treasury, sailed to England and won a judgment from the Court of Chancery where Smithson’s estate had been managed. Rush immediately converted the estate into gold sovereigns, which amounted to $508,318.46, and on July 17, 1838, sailed back to America.
Defining the Smithsonian Institution
Obtaining the money was simple compared to actually using it. For nearly a decade, Congress debated whether to establish this “Smithsonian Institution” at all, as the money came from a man who had never set foot on American soil, yet would have an institution in the nation’s capital that would “immortalize his name.” Among those debates were the considerations of what the institution would actually be? Would it be a museum? A university? A national library? A research institute?
The Milestones of Flight entrance hall of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. (Public Domain)
It was decided that the Smithsonian Institution would be a combination of all these ideas (sans the university), which would ensure that Smithson’s vision would indeed be “an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men.”
Congress agreed to build a “suitable building … for the reception and arrangement … of objects of natural history, including a geological and mineralogical cabinet; also a chemical laboratory, a library, a gallery of art, and the necessary lecture rooms … [and] all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens … shall be arranged in such order, and so classed, as best [to] facilitate the examination and study of them.”
It was during this week in history, Aug. 10, 1846, that President James K. Polk signed into law the 29th Congress’s “Act to Establish the ‘Smithsonian Institution’ for the Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge Among Men.”
Filling the Museum
The Institution was initially placed within the Patent Office building in Washington. The reception of Smithson’s bequest could hardly have been better timed. Merely a month after Rush had secured Smithson’s monies, the federally sponsored four-year United States Exploring Expedition (also known as the Wilkes Expedition) concluded, which would result in the collection of a vast array of various species, including 2,150 birds, 134 mammals, 588 fish, 400 coral species, 1,000 crustacea, and 300 fossils.
The expedition placed more than 200 entomological and zoological species in jars and 5,000 specimens in large envelopes, as well as approximately 50,000 specimens of 10,000 different horticultural and botanical species. There were also more than 4,000 ethnographic pieces collected.
This colossal infusion of scientific elements created an influx of foot traffic within the Smithsonian Institution. The Patent Office experienced 100,000 visitors annually, which created the necessity for a separate and larger space. The first Smithsonian Building, known as “The Castle,” was built in 1855. The Smithsonian Institution is now the largest museum, education, and research complex in the world. It houses 21 museums, the National Zoo, eight research centers, and the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, as well as other facilities.
1896 marble grave marker for James Smithson in the crypt of the Smithsonian Institution Building, Washington. (Jonathunder/CC0)
Giving Smithson a New Home
Interestingly, famed American scientist, Alexander Graham Bell, was on the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents in 1903. He decided it best to have Smithson buried at the Smithsonian Institution.
In fact, it was a prudent move for the sake of posterity: The cemetery in Genoa, where Smithson was buried, was soon to be blasted by British marble industrialists. Through legal means, as well as bribery, Bell and his wife, Mabel, made off with Smithson’s remains and sailed back to America. Smithson’s bones lie interred in a small chapel in the north entrance of the Castle.
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Dustin Bass is an author and co-host of The Sons of History podcast. He also writes two weekly series for The Epoch Times: Profiles in History and This Week in History.
