Description: The 1846 legislation that established the Smithsonian Institution provided for a Secretary, appointed by the Board of Regents, who would run the day-to-day affairs of the Institution. When David Skorton became Secretary last year, he was the thirteenth person to take on that responsibility. In our last blog, we discussed the first six and now we’ll look at seven through
Description: When James Smithson wrote his will on October 23, 1826, he made several bequests to people before adding the contingent clause that created the Smithsonian Institution. One bequest was to a resident of London’s notorious East End.