When was smithsonian started

The illegitimate son of Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie and Hugh Smithson, 1st Duke of Northumberland, he changed his name as well as his citizenship, becoming a naturalized British citizen around the age of ten.

After his parents' death, he became known as James Smithson rather than James Macie. On May 7, , he enrolled in Pembroke College, Oxford, and graduated four years later.

The natural sciences sparked his interest, and he established a solid reputation as a chemist and mineralogist, during the exciting period when chemistry was being developed as a new science in the late s. Committed to discovering the basic elements, he worked diligently to collect mineral and ore samples from European countries.

Excerpts from his notes show that his field excursions often forced him to brave the elements and do without the upper class comforts known to his parents.

Smithson, although a wealthy man, was determined to make a name for himself among scientists. He kept accurate records of his experiments and collections, and his publications earned the respect of his peers. The Royal Society of London recognized his scientific abilities and accepted his membership on April 26, , only a year after he graduated from college, an unusual honor for someone so young. The society became an outlet for publishing many of his papers, which covered a wide range of scientific topics, and also was a meeting place for Smithson and other scientists.

James Smithson wrote a draft of his Last Will and Testament in in London, only three years before he died. He died on June 27, , in Genoa, Italy, where he was buried in a British cemetery. The will left his estate to his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, and stated that if his nephew died without an heir, the money 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 Rush brought Smithson's personal effects to the United States in , along with the money from his estate.

Then Congressional debates continued until when legislation was passed creating the Smithsonian Institution. Unfortunately, a fire in the Smithsonian Institution Building or Castle in destroyed many of the Smithson letters, diaries, and other papers originally acquired by the Institution.

As a result of the fire, the Smithsonian Institution Archives does not have very many of James Smithson's original letters or other papers. Toward the end of his life, under a clause in his will, he left his fortune to the United States. Smithson died in Genoa, Italy, on June 27, , and was interred nearby. And James Smithson finally did visit America, albeit posthumously. This article draws heavily upon this book.

Smithsonian Stories. James Smithson, the scientist who started the Smithsonian. Versatile, inexpensive and relatively easy to play, the acoustic guitar was a staple of American rural music in the early 20th century, particularly black rural music such as the blues.

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