James Smithson

Early life

James Smithson was born in c. 1765 to Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie. His mother was the widow of James Macie, a wealthy man from Weston, Bath. An illegitimate child, Smithson was born in secret in Paris, resulting in his birth name being the Francophone Jacques-Louis Macie (later altered to James Louis Macie). After the death of his parents, he changed his last name to Smithson, the surname of his biological father prior to marriage. He was educated and eventually naturalised in England. In 1766, his mother inherited from the Hungerford family of Studley, where her brother had lived up until his death. His controversial step-father John Marshe Dickinson (aka Dickenson) of Dunstable died in 1771. Smithson enrolled at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1782 and graduated in 1786, later taking his MA. The poet George Keate was a first cousin once removed, on his mother's side.

Smithson was nomadic in his lifestyle, travelling throughout Europe. As a student, in 1784, he participated in a geological expedition with Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, William Thornton and Paolo Andreani of Scotland and the Hebrides. He was in Paris during the French Revolution. In August 1807 Smithson became a prisoner of war while in Tönning during the Napoleonic Wars. He arranged a transfer to Hamburg, where he was again imprisoned, now by the French. The following year, Smithson wrote to Sir Joseph Banks and asked him to use his influence to help free Smithson. Banks succeeded and Smithson returned to England. He never married or had children. Smithson's wealth stemmed from the splitting of his mother's estate with his half-brother, Col. Henry Louis Dickenson.

Scientific work

Smithson's research work was eclectic. He studied subjects ranging from coffee making to the use of calamine, eventually renamed smithsonite, in making brass. He also studied the chemistry of human tears, snake venom and other natural occurrences. Smithson would publish twenty-seven papers. He was nominated to the Royal Society of London by Henry Cavendish and was made a fellow on 26 April 1787. Smithson socialised and worked with scientists Joseph Priestley, Sir Joseph Banks, Antoine Lavoisier, and Richard Kirwan.

His first paper was presented at the Royal Society on 7 July 1791, "An Account of Some Chemical Experiments on Tabasheer." Tabasheer is a substance used in traditional Indian medicine and derived from material collected inside bamboo culms. The samples that Macie analysed had been sent by Patrick Russell, physician-naturalist in India. In 1802 he read his second paper, "A Chemical Analysis of Some Calamines," at the Royal Society. It was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London and was the documented instance of his new name, James Smithson. In the paper, Smithson challenges the idea that the mineral calamine is an oxide of zinc. His discoveries made calamine a "true mineral." He explored and examined Kirkdale Cave; his findings, published in 1824, successfully challenged previous beliefs that the fossils within the formations at the cave were from the Great Flood. Smithson is credited with first using the word "silicates". Smithson's bank records at C. Hoare & Co show extensive and regular income derived from Apsley Pellatt, which suggests that Smithson had a strong financial or scientific relationship with the Blackfriars glass maker.

Later life and death

Smithson died in Genoa, Italy on 27 June 1829. He was buried in Sampierdarena in a Protestant cemetery. In his will, Smithson left his fortune to the son of his half-brother – that is, his nephew, Henry James Dickenson (who had to change his surname to Hungerford as a condition of receiving the inheritance). In the will, which was written in 1826, Smithson stated that Henry James Hungerford, or Hungerford's children, would receive his inheritance, and that if his nephew did not live, and had no children to receive the fortune, it would be donated to the United States to have an educational institution called the Smithsonian Institution founded.

Henry Hungerford died on 5 June 1835, unmarried and leaving behind no children, and the United States was the recipient. In his will, Smithson explained the Smithsonian mission:

"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."

Legacy and the Smithsonian

It was not until 1835 that the United States government was informed about the bequest. Aaron Vail wrote to Secretary of State John Forsyth. This information was then passed onto President Andrew Jackson who then informed Congress. A committee was organised and the Smithsonian Institution was founded. Smithson's estate was sent to the United States, accompanied by Richard Rush. The estate arrived as gold sovereigns in eleven boxes. Smithson's personal items, scientific notes, minerals, and library also travelled with Rush. The gold was transferred to the treasury in Philadelphia and was reminted into $508,318.46. The final funds from Smithson were received in 1864 from Marie de la Batut, Smithson's nephew's mother. This final amount totalled $54,165.38.

On 24 February 1847 the Board of Regents, which oversaw the creation of the Smithsonian, approved the seal for the institution. The seal, based on an engraving by Pierre Joseph Tiolier, was manufactured by Edward Stabler and designed by Robert Dale Owen. Although Smithson's papers and collection of minerals were destroyed in a fire in 1865, his collection of 213 books remains intact at the Smithsonian. The Board of Regents acquired a portrait of Smithson dressed in Oxford University student attire, painted by James Roberts, that is now on display in the crypt at the Smithsonian Castle. An additional portrait, a miniature, and the original draft of Smithson's will were acquired in 1877; they now reside in the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian Institution Archives, respectively. Additional items were acquired from Smithson's relatives in 1878.

Relocation of Smithson's remains to Washington

Smithson was buried just outside Genoa, Italy. The United States consul in Genoa was asked to maintain the grave site, with sponsorship for its maintenance coming from the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Secretary Samuel P. Langley visited the site, contributing further money to maintain it and requested a plaque be designed for the grave site. Three plaques were created by William Ordway Partridge. One was placed at the grave site, a second at a Protestant chapel in Genoa, and the last was gifted to Pembroke College, Oxford. Only one of the plaques exists today. The plaque at the grave site was stolen and then replaced with a marble version. During World War II, the Protestant chapel was destroyed and the plaque was looted. A copy was eventually placed at the site in 1963. The grave site itself was going to be relocated in 1905, and in response, Alexander Graham Bell, who was a regent for the Smithsonian, requested that Smithson's remains be moved to the Smithsonian Institution Building. In 1903, Bell and his wife, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, travelled to Genoa to exhume the body. The ship departed Genoa on 7 January 1904 with the remains and arrived on 20 January. On 25 January a ceremony was held and the body was escorted through Washington, D.C. by the United States Cavalry. When handing over the remains to the Smithsonian, Bell stated:

"And now... my mission is ended and I deliver into your hands ... the remains of this great benefactor of the United States.”

The coffin then lay in state in the Board of Regents' room, where objects from Smithson's personal collection were on display.

Memorial

After the arrival of Smithson's remains, the Board of Regents asked Congress to fund a memorial. Artists and architects were solicited to create proposals for the monument. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Louis Saint-Gaudens, Gutzon Borglum, Totten & Rogers, Henry Bacon, and Hornblower & Marshall were some of the many artists and architectural firms who submitted proposals. The proposals varied in design, from elaborate monumental tombs that, if built, would have been bigger than the Lincoln Memorial, to smaller monuments just outside the Smithsonian Castle. Congress decided not to fund the memorial. To accommodate the fact that the Smithsonian would have to fund the memorial, they used the design of Gutzon Borglum, which suggested a remodel of the south tower room of the Smithsonian Castle to house the memorial surrounded by four Corinthian columns and a vaulted ceiling. Instead of the tower room, a smaller room (at the time it was the janitor's closet) at the north entrance would house an Italian-style sarcophagus.

On 8 December 1904 the Italian crypt was shipped, in sixteen crates from Italy. It travelled on the same ship that the remains of Smithson travelled on. Architecture firm Hornblower & Marshall designed the mortuary chapel, which included marble laurel wreaths and a neo-classical design. Smithson was entombed on 6 March 1905. His casket, which had been held in the Regent's Room, was placed into the ground underneath the crypt. This chapel was to serve as a temporary space for Smithson's remains until Congress approved a larger memorial. However, that never happened, and the remains of Smithson still lie there today.