Washington DC - Genealogy Trails - Museums, Smithsonian

Washington District of Columbia

The Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution Building
on the National Mall
also known as the "Castle" The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazine. Most of its facilities are located in Washington, D.C., but its 19 museums, zoo, and 9 research centers include sites in New York City, Virginia, Panama, and elsewhere. It has over 142 million items in its collections.

The Smithsonian Institution Building on the National Mall also known as the "Castle"		The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazine. Most of its facilities are located in Washington, D.C., but its 19 museums, zoo, and 9 research centers include sites in New York City, Virginia, Panama, and elsewhere. It has over 142 million items in its collections.

Furnished by : Linda Craig

1846: The Smithsonian Institution is established
"The Senate this morning passed the Smithsonian bill just as it came from the House, rejecting the committee's amendments, so that unless vetoed or pocketed by the President, it will become a law,"
reported the Huron Reflector on August 18, 1846.
The Smithsonian Institution, a research and education center based in Washington D.C., was founded after $500,000 was donated for its establishment by British scientist James Smithson.

		Furnished by : Linda Craig 1846: The Smithsonian Institution is established "The Senate this morning passed the Smithsonian bill just as it came from the House, rejecting the committee's amendments, so that unless vetoed or pocketed by the President, it will become a law," reported the Huron Reflector on August 18, 1846. The Smithsonian Institution, a research and education center based in Washington D.C., was founded after $500,000 was donated for its establishment by British scientist James Smithson.

History
The Smithsonian Institution was founded for the ""increase and diffusion" of knowledge by a bequest to the United States by the British scientist James Smithson (1765-1829), who had never visited the United States himself.
In Smithson's will, he stated that should his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, die without heirs, the Smithson estate would go to the government of the United States for creating an
"Establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men".
After the nephew died without heirs in 1835, President Andrew Jackson informed Congress of the bequest, which amounted to 104,960 gold sovereigns, or US$500,000 ($9,235,277 in 2005 U.S. dollars after inflation).
Eight years later, Congress passed an act establishing the Smithsonian Institution, a hybrid public and private partnership, and the act was signed into law on August 10, 1846 by James Polk. (See 20 U.S.C. § 41 (Ch. 178, Sec. 1, 9 Stat. 102).) The bill was drafted by Indiana Democratic Congressman Robert Dale Owen, a Socialist and son of Robert Owen, the father of the cooperative movement.
Administration
The Smithsonian Institution is established as a trust instrumentality by act of Congress, and it is functionally and legally a body of the federal government. More than two-thirds of the Smithsonian's workforce of some 6,300 persons are employees of the federal government.
The Smithsonian is represented by attorneys from the United States Department of Justice in litigation, and money judgments against the Smithsonian are also paid out of the federal treasury.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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