Crypt of James Smithson
ID: MAH-17041
Creator: Unknown
Form/Genre: Photographic print
Date: 1905
Citation: Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 95 Box 31 Folder 32
Usage Conditions Apply
The Smithsonian Institution Archives welcomes personal and educational use of its collections unless otherwise noted. For commercial uses, please contact photos@si.edu.Summary
Crypt containing the body of founder James Smithson in the North Tower entrance of the Smithsonian Institution Building or "Castle." 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.
Subject
- Bell, Alexander Graham 1847-1922
- Smithson, James 1765-1829
- Hornblower & Marshall
- Smithsonian Institution Building North Towers
- Smithsonian Institution Building (Washington, D.C.)
Category
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Notes
See Field, Ewing and Stamm, "The Castle," pp. 154-57; Smithsonian Institution Annual Report for 1905, pp. 6-7. Rick Stamm's unpublished ms. "The History of Smithson's Crypt" details each of the proposals made for a Smithson memorial, copy in Office of Architectural History. The proposals are located in Smithsonian Institution Archives, RU7000, B4.
Contained within
Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 95 Box 31 Folder 32
Contact information
Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu
Date
1905
Restrictions & Rights
No restrictions
Topic
- Tombs
- Smithson, James
- Benefactors
- Memorials
- Smithson family
- Death and burial
- Crypt
- Smithson, James--Death and burial
Form/Genre
- Photographic print
- Interior
ID Number
MAH-17041
Physical description
Color: Black and White; Size: 8w x 10h; Type of Image: Interior; Medium: Photographic print