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The Smithsonian Institution is a museum complex with most of its facilities in Washington D.C.. It consists of 16 museums, 7 research centers and 142 million items in its collections.
A monthly magazine published by the Smithsonian Institution is also named Smithsonian.
History
The Smithsonian Institution was founded for the promotion and dissemination of knowledge by a bequest to the United States by James Smithson (1765-1829). In James Smithson's will, he stated that should his nephew, Henry James Hungerford , die without heirs, the Smithson estate would go to the United States of America for establishing an institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men". After the nephew died without heirs in 1835, President Andrew Jackson informed Congress of the bequest, which amounted to 100,000 gold sovereigns, or $500,000 U.S. dollars ($8,790,303 in current 2004 U.S. dollars after inflation). Eight years later, Congress passed an act establishing the Smithsonian Institution and the act was signed into law on August 10, 1846 by James Polk. The bill was drafted by Indiana Democratic Congressman Robert Dale Owen, a Socialist and son of Robert Owen, the father of the cooperative movement. The Smithsonian Institution is established as a trust administered by a secretary and board of regents. The nominal head of the institute is the Chancellor, an office which has always been held by the current Chief Justice of the United States. Serving as a member of the board of regents is one of the very few official legal duties of the Vice President of the United States.
The Information Center in the central complex has architecture reminiscent of a castle and is known informally as "The Castle". It was built by architect James Renwick, Jr. and completed in 1855. Many of the other buildings are landmarks and feature other distinctive architectural styles.
The asteroid 3773 Smithsonian is named in honor of the institution.
Secretaries of the Smithsonian
- Joseph Henry – 1846-1878
- Spencer Fullerton Baird – 1878-1887
- Samuel Pierpont Langley – 1887-1906
- Charles Doolittle Walcott – 1907-1927
- Charles Greeley Abbot – 1928-1944
- Alexander Wetmore – 1944-1952
- Leonard Carmichael – 1953-1964
- Sidney Dillon Ripley – 1964-1984
- Robert McCormick Adams – 1984-1994
- I. Michael Heyman – 1994-1999
- Lawrence M. Small – 2000-present
See: The Secretaries of the Smithsonian Institution
Further reading
- Nina Burleigh, Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the Making of America's Greatest Museum, The Smithsonian, HarperCollins, September, 2003, hardcover, 288 pages, ISBN 0060002417
List of Smithsonian museums
List of Smithsonian research centers
External links
