The Bizarre Life of Mr. Smithson(ian)

In all his life, Mr. Smithson never once visited the United States. So how did he become the founder of the Smithsonian Institution?

Founder of the Smithsonian Institution, James Smithson was born in 1765 as the illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland. Smithson spent most of his childhood in Paris, only leaving in 1782 to attend Pembroke College in Oxford. He quickly rose through the academic ranks through his study of chemistry and mineralogy, and became an influential member of the Royal Society of London when he was only twenty-two years old. Smithson’s personal life was not well recorded, but according to the writings of French geologist Barthélemy Faujas de Saint Fond, Smithson was a:

 “diligent young student, dedicated to scientific research, who even risked drowning to gather geological observations on a tour of the Hebrides Islands.” Smithson spent his life actively collecting, experimenting, and writing on a variety of natural history topics. By his death in 1829, Smithson had produced at least 27 scientific papers- and a vast fortune gained by his own savvy financial dealings. Three years before he died, Smithson wrote his last will and testament: “I then bequeath the whole of my property 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.”[1]

This was certainly an unusual bequest. James Smithson, born in France and the son of an English duke, had never been to the United States. Besides that single sentence in his will, Smithson left no record of his intentions behind the enormous bequest. Modern historians like Heather Ewing, author of The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian, speculate that Smithson’s past as a rejected illegitimate son of the British aristocracy influenced his decision. Ewing writes that Smithson and his contemporaries viewed the American and French revolutions as the “triumphant confirmation that even the most hierarchical of societies could be transformed. And in America’s unprecedented system of government, founded upon the rights of man, where each person was to be valued for his contribution rather than his pedigree, they saw the future—the most promising foundation for the pursuit of knowledge and the advancement of society."[2] Smithson was possibly influenced by his colleagues Henry Cavendish and Dominique François Aragoa, who envisioned using science to improve society. Unfortunately Smithson’s intentions were never recorded, and modern historians are left to speculate.

Smithson’s bequest caused an uproar in the United States when his will was finally passed on by his nephew in 1835. The amount Smithson had left the United States government equaled 1/66 of the entire federal budget at the time.[3] From 1835 to 1836, Congress debated on whether the to accept the bequest at all, as some were opposed. Senator John C. Calhoun was enraged that the government could accept a financial gift from an individual, arguing that it was: "beneath [U.S.] dignity to accept presents from anyone."[4] One of the most fervent supporters of the Smithsonian Institution was former president John Quincy Adams. Adams focused on the symbolic meaning behind building a national institution, and what it could mean for the new nation. In December of 1835, Adams made the following appeal to the House of Representatives:

The whole Government, under the continual superintendence of the whole People, has been holding a steady course of prosperity, unexampled in the contemporary history of other nations not less than in the annals of ages past...a British subject, of noble birth and ample fortune, desiring to bequeath his whole estate to the purpose of increasing and diffusing knowledge throughout the whole community of civilized man, selects for the depositaries of his trust, with confidence unqualified with reserve, the Congress of the United States of America. [5]

            Adams’ language in his appeal is powerful because he emphasizes the symbolic meaning of a British subject of high birth placing his estate in the United States’ hands. Close to half a century had passed since the American Revolution, but tensions were still high between the the United States and Great Britain. Adams notes this in his appeal by saying: “our country has been freely visited by observers from other lands, and often in no friendly spirit by travellers from the native land of Mr. Smithson.” In his rhetoric, Adams closely linked Smithson’s will with British acceptance and approval of the United States government. To Adams and many others, the proposed national institution represented the success of democracy. The case proved powerful, and by May the following year the U.S. Senate voted to accept Smithson’s bequest. However, Smithson’s instructions to create an “establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men,” were ambiguous. The real debate had just now begun: what kind of knowledge would this national institution promote, and how?

Over the course of ten years, several ideas for the new institution were proposed. Smithson had been a scientist himself, so many assumed the institution should be dedicated to the advancement of science. Yet Congressmen, scientists, and academics all proposed different solutions. Building a laboratory, observatory, library, or university were argued. In 1839, Senator Asher Robbins proposed the creation of a national university where classics would be taught, and that idea soon gained traction. Robbins argued that as a new democratic nation, the United States needed to be constantly referring to ancient Greek thinkers and that: "we have only to tread the path that led the Athenian to his glory, and to open that path to the youth of our country."

On August 10th, 1846, the U.S. Senate finally passed the act to begin building the Smithsonian Institution. It was decided the Smithsonian would house: “...all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens, belonging, or hereafter to belong, to the United States... and shall be arranged in such order, and so classed, as best [to] facilitate the examination and study of them, in the building so as aforesaid to be erected for the institution.”[6] The act called for the construction of an art gallery, lecture hall, library, chemical laboratory, natural history laboratory, and science museum, all contained in the same building. The administrative organization would also reflect the representative United States government, and the Smithsonian Institution would be: “governed by a Board of Regents, consisting of the Vice President, the Chief Justice, three members each from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and nine other American citizens appointed by joint resolution of Congress.”[7] The building was completed in 1855 by architect James Renwick Jr, located only a few miles away from the Capitol building and White House in Washington D.C. Later in 1902, the Smithsonian became integrated into the McMillan Commission’s plan to create a “Grand Avenue,” where a giant lawn lined with American elm trees would be home to several monuments and memorials celebrating the United States.[8] Notable memorials such as the ones dedicated to former presidents Lincoln and Jefferson were styled like Greek and Roman temples, promoting the idea that the United States government is reviving ancient democracy.

The National Mall and the Smithsonian Institution have continuously grown throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Currently the largest museum complex in the world, the Smithsonian Institution today consists of nineteen museums, nine research centers, and a zoo.[9] Yet even as the Smithsonian Institution has expanded, it remained closely linked with the Enlightenment ideals adopted into the United States’ national identity. Whether a specific Smithsonian museum centers on history, art, or science, each museum subtly models American ideals to visitors. Modern museum theorist Donna Harraway writes that when entering the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History:

“One is entering a space that sacralizes democracy, Protestant Christianity, adventure, science, and commerce. It is impossible not to feel entering this building that a drama will be enacted inside. Experience in this public monument will be intensely personal; this structure is one of North America's spaces for joining the duality of self and community...The walls are inscribed with Roosevelt's words under the headings Nature, Youth, Manhood, the State.[10]”

            To this day, the Smithsonian Institution continues the Enlightenment tradition of promoting individual and political liberty through the transmission of knowledge to the general public.

Bibliography:

[1] Smithson, James. "Last Will and Testament." October 23rd, 1826. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Web.

[2] Ewing, Heather. “The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian.”

[3] https://www.si.edu/about/history

[4] http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/accepting_02.html

[5] Adams, John Quincy. Smithsonian Bequest in the House of Representatives.” Dec 21st, 1835.http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/natinte2.htm

[6] U.S. Senate. "An Act to Establish the Smithsonian Institution." August 10th, 1846. From Smithson to Smithsonian: The Birth of an Institution Online Exhibition. Smithsonian Institution Libraries, July 1996.

[7] Matchette, Robert B. “Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States.” National Archives and Records Administration, 1995.

[8] "National Mall." National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 2018.

[9] "About the Smithsonian." Smithsonian, 2018.

[10] Harraway, Donna. “Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908-1936."  Duke University Press, 1984. Pgs. 21-22.