A common directional question is "How do we get to the Smithsonian?"
Well, depends. You could take the Metro to Cleveland Park, you could walk down the National Mall, you could take a cab into Chinatown, you could take a plane to New York City. It depends because there are actually 19 Smithsonian Museums and the National Zoo, all of which are part of the grander Smithsonian Institution.
Born in France, died in Italy, buried in the States, he was actually British. Jacques Louis Macie was the illigitmate son of Lord Smithson. Jacques's mother re-married, or I guess, married and had another son but someone who was not the man she just married. It took an official act of Parlaiment in 1801 to officially change his name to Smithson after his mother died. He was at that point a well-established member of academic society having been elected the youngest member of the The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge.
Smithson, now officially, was a mineralogist and proved something scientific about zinc carbonites and oxides ... (you don't expect the scientific explanation in a historical blog, do you?) It was posthumously named smithsonite in his honor. His collection of rare gems and investments earned him quite a fortune, but a life spent traveling the mineral deposits of Europe left him with no children. His nephew, to whom the fortune went, also had no children, so the most obvious next heir would be the United States. A place James Smithson had never been.
Smithson's will specifically states that should his nephew have no heirs the fortune should go "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." While we do not know the real reason he chose to bequeth the fortune to a country he'd never visited, it is thought that perhaps it was a bit of overcompensation for his illegitimate birth. He was illigitimately related to and spent his life amognst and his mother was the ... well ... loose woman to some of the most highly regard and noble familes in England, the Percies and Northumberlands. He once stated that "though the best blood of England flowed in his veins, this availed him not, for his name would live in the memory of men when the titles of Northumberlands and Percies were extinct or forgotten."
So it did. The money went to the States. But not without dispute of course. But eventually $508,000 worth of gold sovereigns were sent to Philadelphia in 1838. Being America, it took nearly 10 years to do something with it and the Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846.
It began as a research institution rather than a museum but through it's own expeditions and the items left there by Washington and government travels, it became one of the worlds greatest museums. It holds over 136 million items in it's collections. At any given point, the massive group of 19 museums only has on display 2% of it's entire collection, 98% is in... Suitland, Maryland!
Sorry, no tunnels underneath the national Mall, as told by a certain Ben Stiller film. Well, there is one that connects that Smithsonian Castle and the Natural History museum, but it is a maintenance tunnel.
Speaking of the Castle. Remember how I said James Smithson, nee Macie, had never been to the United States? Bit of a fib, though buried in Genoa, Italy, in 1904, Alexander Graham Bell, head of the Smithsonian at the time, decided we wanted him. Dug him up and Smithson is now re-interred in the Smithsonian Castle.
This isn't really a castle, just looks like one. And now, it is really a museum, either. But another "Smithson" Castle, the one that James Smithson lived in (he was rich, British and it was the 1800s, he obviously lived in a castle) called Alnwick Castle. Never heard of it?
What if I called it Hogwarts? That castle that James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution, lived in is what they used to film Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.
And that is the fact I shall leave you with ...
Well, depends. You could take the Metro to Cleveland Park, you could walk down the National Mall, you could take a cab into Chinatown, you could take a plane to New York City. It depends because there are actually 19 Smithsonian Museums and the National Zoo, all of which are part of the grander Smithsonian Institution.
Born in France, died in Italy, buried in the States, he was actually British. Jacques Louis Macie was the illigitmate son of Lord Smithson. Jacques's mother re-married, or I guess, married and had another son but someone who was not the man she just married. It took an official act of Parlaiment in 1801 to officially change his name to Smithson after his mother died. He was at that point a well-established member of academic society having been elected the youngest member of the The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge.
Smithson, now officially, was a mineralogist and proved something scientific about zinc carbonites and oxides ... (you don't expect the scientific explanation in a historical blog, do you?) It was posthumously named smithsonite in his honor. His collection of rare gems and investments earned him quite a fortune, but a life spent traveling the mineral deposits of Europe left him with no children. His nephew, to whom the fortune went, also had no children, so the most obvious next heir would be the United States. A place James Smithson had never been.
Smithson's will specifically states that should his nephew have no heirs the fortune should go "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." While we do not know the real reason he chose to bequeth the fortune to a country he'd never visited, it is thought that perhaps it was a bit of overcompensation for his illegitimate birth. He was illigitimately related to and spent his life amognst and his mother was the ... well ... loose woman to some of the most highly regard and noble familes in England, the Percies and Northumberlands. He once stated that "though the best blood of England flowed in his veins, this availed him not, for his name would live in the memory of men when the titles of Northumberlands and Percies were extinct or forgotten."
So it did. The money went to the States. But not without dispute of course. But eventually $508,000 worth of gold sovereigns were sent to Philadelphia in 1838. Being America, it took nearly 10 years to do something with it and the Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846.
It began as a research institution rather than a museum but through it's own expeditions and the items left there by Washington and government travels, it became one of the worlds greatest museums. It holds over 136 million items in it's collections. At any given point, the massive group of 19 museums only has on display 2% of it's entire collection, 98% is in... Suitland, Maryland!
Sorry, no tunnels underneath the national Mall, as told by a certain Ben Stiller film. Well, there is one that connects that Smithsonian Castle and the Natural History museum, but it is a maintenance tunnel.
Speaking of the Castle. Remember how I said James Smithson, nee Macie, had never been to the United States? Bit of a fib, though buried in Genoa, Italy, in 1904, Alexander Graham Bell, head of the Smithsonian at the time, decided we wanted him. Dug him up and Smithson is now re-interred in the Smithsonian Castle.
This isn't really a castle, just looks like one. And now, it is really a museum, either. But another "Smithson" Castle, the one that James Smithson lived in (he was rich, British and it was the 1800s, he obviously lived in a castle) called Alnwick Castle. Never heard of it?
What if I called it Hogwarts? That castle that James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution, lived in is what they used to film Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.
And that is the fact I shall leave you with ...
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