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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class as a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that proves it's never too late to make history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lousier, and today we're talking about a foreign

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Speaker 1: gift that helped develop the national identity of the United

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Speaker 1: States and provided its students with an endless array of

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Speaker 1: field trip destinations. The day was August tenth, eighteen forty six.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to an unusual bequest from British scientists James Smithson,

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Speaker 1: the Smithsonian Institution was established in the United States. The

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Speaker 1: US Senate authorized its organization on August tent and President

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Speaker 1: James K. Polk signed the act into law later that day.

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Speaker 1: The funds for the institution's founding had been left to

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Speaker 1: the US government as part of the estate of noted

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Speaker 1: chemist and mineralogist James Smithson. His will had called for

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Speaker 1: the funds to be used for the founding of quote

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Speaker 1: an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge under

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Speaker 1: the name of the Smithsonian Institution. Nearly two hundred years later,

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Speaker 1: the Smithsonian is now the world's largest museum, education and

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Speaker 1: research complex. It consists of twenty one libraries. Nineteen museums,

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Speaker 1: nine research facilities and the National Zoo. More than thirty

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Speaker 1: million visitors are admitted free of charge to these locations

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Speaker 1: each year. The institution holds more than a hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty four million items in its various collections, which has

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Speaker 1: earned it the nickname of the nation's attic. James Lewis

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Speaker 1: Smithson was born in Paris, France, on June five, seventeen

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Speaker 1: sixty five. However, in his early years he was known

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Speaker 1: as James Macy after his mother, Elizabeth Macy. Because James

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Speaker 1: had been born out of wedlock, he was unable to

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Speaker 1: take the name of his father, Hugh Smithson, the first

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Speaker 1: Duke of Northumberland. A few years later, the family moved

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Speaker 1: to England, and at age ten, James became a naturalized citizen.

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Speaker 1: When he was seventeen, he enrolled in Pembroke College, Oxford,

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Speaker 1: where he developed a fascination with the natural sciences. In

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Speaker 1: his free time, he began collecting and cataloging mineral and

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Speaker 1: ore samples from various European countries. His detailed notes revealed

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Speaker 1: that he often went to extreme lengths to obtain these specimens,

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Speaker 1: subjecting himself to discomforts that were typically avoided by the

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Speaker 1: upper class. During his years at Oxford, James also published

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Speaker 1: a series of scientific writings under the last name Smithson

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Speaker 1: instead of Macy. He may have used his father's name

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Speaker 1: to draw more attention to his papers, but he coast

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Speaker 1: on that borrowed notoriety. Instead, he sought to earn the

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Speaker 1: respect of his fellow scientists by virtue of his own

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Speaker 1: skills and accomplishments. He did a good job of it too.

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Speaker 1: One of his most notable contributions to the field was

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Speaker 1: the discovery that zinc carbonates are true minerals, rather than

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Speaker 1: just oxidized forms of zinc. Years later, a fellow French

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Speaker 1: mineralogist would pay homage to this discovery by naming a

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Speaker 1: type of zinc carbonate Smith's a Night in his honor.

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Speaker 1: But Smithson received plenty of honors at the time too.

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Speaker 1: In fact, just one year after graduating from Pembrooke, he

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Speaker 1: was accepted as a member of a prestigious scientific academy

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Speaker 1: called the Royal Society of London. It was a rare

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Speaker 1: honor for someone of his age, but on the strength

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Speaker 1: of his publications, he had earned it. By that time.

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Speaker 1: Both of his parents had passed away, allowing him to

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Speaker 1: continue using the Smithson name without objection. James and here

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Speaker 1: did a sizeable estate from his parents, which was supplemented

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Speaker 1: by his own considerable earnings. He never married or had

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Speaker 1: any children of his own, so when he passed away

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Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty nine at the age of sixty four,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't clear who would inherit his fortune. It was

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Speaker 1: soon revealed, though, that Smithson had written a draft of

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Speaker 1: his will in eighteen twenty six, just three years before

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Speaker 1: his death. It stated that his entire estate should go

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Speaker 1: to his nephew, Henry James Hungerford. However, there was one

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Speaker 1: peculiar stipulation for the bequest. It said that if Henry

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Speaker 1: should die without an air of his own, then Smithson's

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Speaker 1: estate should be turned over to the United States for

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Speaker 1: the purposes of founding an educational institution for the public.

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Speaker 1: That provision raised a few eyebrows at the time, but

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Speaker 1: no one put much stock in it actually being fulfilled.

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Speaker 1: After all, Henry Hungerford was only in his early twenties

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Speaker 1: at the time of his uncle's passing. He had his

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Speaker 1: whole if ahead of him, and there was a strong

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Speaker 1: chance he'd start a family at some point, as you've

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Speaker 1: probably guessed, though, that's now what ended up happening. Instead.

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Speaker 1: Smithson's nephew died of unknown causes just six years later

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Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty five. He had no heir, so all

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Speaker 1: the valuables that had once belonged to his uncle now

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Speaker 1: belonged to the United States. The US government was notified

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Speaker 1: of the bequest that same year, and in July of

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirty six, Congress officially accepted it as a charitable trust.

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Speaker 1: President Andrew Jackson dispatched diplomat Richard Rush to England to

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Speaker 1: work out the details and escort the money home. Two

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Speaker 1: years later, Rush finally set sail for the US with

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Speaker 1: eleven massive boxes containing more than a hundred thousand gold sovereigns,

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Speaker 1: as well as Smithson's personal mineral collection, library, scientific notes,

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Speaker 1: and other personal belongings. Congress ordered the gold to be

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Speaker 1: melted down and recoined as US currency. Once done, the

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Speaker 1: fortune's value was north of five hundred thousand dollars, the

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Speaker 1: equivalent of roughly sixteen million dollars today. Even though Congress

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Speaker 1: had taken possession of Smithson's bequest in eighteen thirty eight,

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Speaker 1: it was another eight years before they decided what to

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Speaker 1: do with it. Plenty of recommendations were made during that time,

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Speaker 1: including the creation of a public library, a national university,

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Speaker 1: or an astronomical observatory. Smithson hadn't specified what kind of

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Speaker 1: educational institution should be founded, so Congress made sure to

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Speaker 1: explore all its options. In the end, it decided to

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Speaker 1: split the difference and use the money to found a

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Speaker 1: catch all institution, a museum, a library, and a research

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Speaker 1: and publication program all in one. The Smithsonian Institution was

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Speaker 1: established on August tenth, eighteen forty six, and its first building,

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Speaker 1: known colloquially as the Castle, was opened in Washington, d c.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty five. Smithson's letters, diaries, and other personal

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Speaker 1: effects were housed there, alongside lecture halls, exhibit halls, and

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Speaker 1: laboratories devoted to the sciences, arts, and history. Sadly, a

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Speaker 1: devastating fire in eighteen sixty five destroyed much of that

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Speaker 1: early collection, including most of Smithson's original papers. Among those

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Speaker 1: that survived was the handwritten draft of his last will

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Speaker 1: and testament. Years later, the Institution would also acquire other

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Speaker 1: objects related to its founder, as well as his bodily remains. Today,

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Speaker 1: visitors can pay their respects to the institution's founding donor

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Speaker 1: by visiting his crypt, located on the first floor of

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Speaker 1: the original Smithsonian building. And while not all of them

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Speaker 1: will want to visit a crypt, Americans really do have

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Speaker 1: a lot to thank him for. The National Air and

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Speaker 1: Space Museum, the National Museum of now Tural History, the

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Speaker 1: National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of African American History

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Speaker 1: and Culture. The list goes on and on. The enduring

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Speaker 1: mystery behind Smithson's generous bequest is why he made it

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Speaker 1: at all. He had visited a lot of places during

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Speaker 1: his lifetime, but the United States wasn't one of them.

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Speaker 1: He never stepped foot in the country, and there's no

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Speaker 1: record of him having corresponded with any U. S citizen.

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Speaker 1: That begs the question, why would he leave his entire

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Speaker 1: fortune to a country he had no connection with. Historians

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Speaker 1: have come up with a few possibilities. One theory is

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Speaker 1: that Smithson did it just to stick it to England,

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Speaker 1: the country whose rigid social structure had kept him at

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Speaker 1: arm's length from his father's legacy and made him a

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Speaker 1: bastard in the eyes of the public. Another option, which

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Speaker 1: may or may not be related to the first was

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Speaker 1: that Smithson admired the United States approach to democracy, Although

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Speaker 1: he never visited himself, he may have seen the US

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Speaker 1: as a less stuffy, more forward thinking version of his

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Speaker 1: own country. In that sense, the bequest could have been

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Speaker 1: his way of saying, here, foster a love of knowledge

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Speaker 1: and your people, and then you'll have everything you need

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Speaker 1: to truly rival Great Britain. Of course, all of that

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Speaker 1: is just speculation. Smithson never wrote about his bequest, and

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Speaker 1: there's no evidence he ever discussed it with anyone either.

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Speaker 1: But while we may not know his true motivations, we

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Speaker 1: do know the results of his actions, including the profound

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Speaker 1: impact they've had on the humanities, arts, and sciences in

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Speaker 1: the United States. Though the circumstances surrounding it were strange

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Speaker 1: and unexpected, Smithson's gift is one that keeps on giving.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay, Bluesier, and hopefully you now know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can

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Speaker 1: learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at t d i HC Show. You can

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Speaker 1: also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or

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Speaker 1: you can send your feedback directly to me at this

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Speaker 1: day at I heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler

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Speaker 1: Mays for producing the show, and thank you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day

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Speaker 1: in history class