Description: During debates about the Smithsonian’s founding, the idea of using James Smithson’s bequest for a botanic garden was included in several drafts of the bill considered by Congress. In 1850, President Millard Fillmore commissioned America’s preeminent landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing to design plans for the National Mall, including grounds around the Smithsonian Castle,
Description: [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="James 'Jim' Mello, Assistant Director of the National Museum of Natural History, sitting at a demonstration loom in the National Museum of American History's Textiles Hall, 1983, by Richard K. Hofmeister, Photographic print, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 371, Box 4, Negative Number: