James Smithson Crypt, Smithsonian Institution Building, or Castle
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ID: SIA RU000095 [SIA_000095_B31_F26_005]
Creator: Smithsonian Institution
Form/Genre: Color transparencies
Date: 1974
Citation: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 31, Folder 26, Image No. SIA_000095_B31_F26_005
Interior view, crypt containing the body of founder James Smithson at the North Tower entrance of the Smithsonian Institution Building, or Castle, after renovation of the crypt room in 1973-1974.
Smithson's remains were brought to the United States by Smithsonian Regent Alexander Graham Bell in 1904, when the Protestant Cemetery in Genoa, Italy, where Smithson was buried, was to be moved. Many plans were made for an elaborate memorial to the Institution's benefactor, but the lack of an appropriation dictated a more modest course. Smithson's marker from the Italian gravesite was incorporated into the room, and a gate was fashioned from pieces of the fence that had surrounded the site. Architects Hornblower and Marshall redesigned the room to give it a more somber classical feeling, replacing the ceiling, windows, and the floor.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 31, Folder 26, Image No. SIA_000095_B31_F26_005
Smithsonian Institution Archives Capital Gallery, Suite 3000, MRC 507; 600 Maryland Avenue, SW; Washington, DC 20024-2520
Crypts
Color transparencies
SIA RU000095 [SIA_000095_B31_F26_005]
Color slides; 35mm;