James Smithson's Peculiar Bequest

James Smithson had never visited the United States. He was a British chemist and mineralogist, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland, educated at Oxford, a fellow of the Royal Society. He had no known personal connection to America, no correspondents here that historians have been able to identify, no stated reason for what he did with his money.

He died in Genoa in June of eighteen twenty-nine. His will left his entire estate, valued at approximately one hundred five thousand gold sovereigns, to the United States of America, to found at Washington an institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. If his nephew died without heirs, the estate was to go to this unnamed institution. The nephew died childless in eighteen thirty-five.

Congress spent six years debating whether to accept the gift. Some members argued it was beneath the dignity of the republic to accept foreign charity. Former President John Quincy Adams, now serving in the House, argued that refusing the gift would be foolishness the nation could not afford. His side eventually won.

The Smithsonian Institution was established by Congress in eighteen forty-six. The castle-shaped red sandstone building on the Mall, completed in eighteen fifty-five, was its first home. James Smithson's remains were moved from Genoa to a tomb in the castle's foyer in nineteen oh four.

The institution that resulted from his unexplained generosity now holds one hundred fifty-five million objects across twenty-one museums. It has never charged admission. The secretary of the Smithsonian is still occasionally asked, in the press and in scholarly articles, why Smithson did it. No satisfying answer has emerged.