Smithsonian Institution

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, an American institu tion of learning in Washington, D.C., founded by the bequest of James Smithson (q.v.). His estate was left to a nephew, Henry James Hungerford, with the stipulation that should Hungerford die without issue the whole estate should go "to the United States of America to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." Hungerford died without issue in 1835. There was much opposition in America to the acceptance of Smithson's bequest, especially by John C. Calhoun and others, who held that Congress had no power under the Constitution to accept such a gift, but it was accepted, largely through the efforts of John Quincy Adams.

Establishment.

In Sept. 1838 £104,960 in gold sovereigns was delivered from the clipper "Mediator" to the Philadelphia mint, where it was recoined into American money, $508,318.46; in 1867, of ter the death of Hungerford's mother, a residuary legacy of $26,210 was received and the fund then amounted to $650,000. By savings of interest, and by other gifts, notably that of $250,000 from Thomas George Hodgkins (d. 1892) of Setauket, Long Island, N.Y., the fund was increased. In 1928 it amounted to about $1,500,000. After ro years of debate Congress accepted the trust and created by enactment an "establishment" called the Smithsonian Institution, consisting of the president, the vice president, the chief justice and the members of the president's cabinet. It has a secretary, the executive officer of the institution, who is also the keeper of the National Museum. Smithson's money, a great fortune in that day, was lent to the U.S. Treasury, the Government agreeing to pay perpetually 6% interest upon it. In the fundamental act creating the institution, Congress pro vided that it should be governed by a board of regents, composed in 1928 of the vice president and chief justice, three members of the Senate, three members of the House of Representatives and six private citizens, two of them residents of the District of Columbia. The fundamental act also provided for a library and for a museum, which was to contain "objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and objects of natural history, etc.," belong ing to the United States. The museum was later designated the United States National Museum, but remains under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution.

The first meeting of the regents occurred on Sept. 7, 1846, and

in the autumn of the same year they elected as secretary Joseph Henry (q.v.), then a professor at Princeton, known for his experi ments on the electromagnet and other subjects relating to elec tricity. Under his guidance the institution took shape. Henry seized the unique opportunity offered by the opening up of the great western areas of the United States, to make collections of fauna and flora, and to study the Indian tribes. A principal feature of his administration, also, was the establishment of inter national exchanges of scientific literature. About 1900 there took shape, with international co-operation, Henry's idea of a catalogue of the scientific literature of the world, and the Smithsonian was made custodian of the United States branch of the organization.

The diffusion of knowledge was promoted by publishing (I) a series of periodical reports on the progress of different branches of knowledge; (2) occasional separate treatises on subjects of general interest ; and (3) monographs on subjects investigated by experts both within and outside the institution. Henry opposed the scheme for the gradual formation of a general library under the charge of the institution, and in 1855 committed the board of regents to a repeal of the previous practice of spending one-half of the annual income on the museum and library, and this action was approved by an investigating congressional committee. In 1846 a plan was presented for the unification and systematization of weather observation under the institution. In Dec. 1847 an appropriation was made by the board for such meteorological research; in 1849 telegraphic transmission of meteorological intelligence collected by the institution was begun; in 1850 a standard "Smithsonian barometer" (Arnold Guyot's improvement, of Ernst's improved Fortin "cistern barometer"), was first dis tributed; weather maps were successfully made in 1856. In 1870 the meteorological work of the institution was incorporated with the Signal corps, independent of the institution. Still later the U.S. Weather Bureau was established by act of Congress. After 1854 Henry's annual reports contained a general appendix with reports of lectures, such as were held under the auspices of the institution until 1865, summaries of correspondence, special papers, etc. Before 5870 meteorology bulked largely in these reports ; after that year there was more North American archaeology and ethnology.