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Solomon Brown, First African American
Employee at the Smithsonian

Mary Henry
Diaries,
Eyewitness to the Civil War

William H. Dall, Alaskan Explorer

The Wright Brothers,
Pioneers in Aviation

Robert H.
Goddard,
American Rocket Pioneer

James Smithson, Founder of the Smithsonian

James Renwick, Jr., Architect of
the Smithsonian
Building

William Temple Hornaday
Saving America's Bison

Wilson A. Bentley
Pioneering
Photographer
of Snowflakes

Primary Source Document
Exercise

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James Smithson

The birth of James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution, is thought to be during the year 1765. Born in France, he became a naturalized British citizen around the age of ten. The illegitimate son of Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie and Hugh Smithson, 1st Duke of Northumberland, he changed his name as well as his citizenship. After his parents' death, he became known as James Smithson rather than James Macie. On May 7, 1782, 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, despite the lack of quality information available on these topics in the late 1700s. He realized this and worked diligently to collect mineral and ore samples from European countries. Excerpts from his notes show that his excursions often forced him to brave the elements and do without the monetary comforts of his parents. Smithson, although a wealthy man, determined to make a name for himself among scientists without depending upon his heritage. He kept accurate accounts of his experiments and collections and earned the respect of his peers. When the Royal Society of London recognized his scientific abilities and accepted his membership on April 26, 1787, only a year after he graduated from college, he knew his quest and respect for knowledge would yield even greater things. The Society became an outlet for publishing many of his papers, which covered a diverse range of scientific topics, as well as a meeting place for fellow intellectuals.

James Smithson wrote his Last Will and Testament with the same exactness found in his research notes. He drafted it in 1826 in London, only three years before he died. He died on June 27, 1829, in Genoa, Italy, where he was buried in a British Cemetery. The will entailed 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 ...."

Documents On-Line

• Smithson's Last Will and Testament, October 23, 1826
   
• Recipe Book for Tooth Powder in Smithson's Recipe Book

Other Resources

• From Smithson to Smithsonian: The Birth of an Institution
   
• Smithson's Gift: The Story of a Bequest
   
• The James Smithson Collection, c. 1764-1983