SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, The, an establishment at Washington, founded under a bequest of James Smithson (q.v.), couched in the following terms: '
System of Administration.— The establish ment consists of the President of the United States, who is the presiding officer ex officio; the Vice-President, the chief justice of the United States and the members of the Cabinet. In addition to the establishment, there is pro vided a board of regents, by whom the business of the institution is administered, composed of the Vice-President of the United States, the chief justice of the United States, three mem bers of the Senate, three members of the House of Representatives and six citizens, two of whom must be residents of the District of Columbia, and the other four from States of the Union, but no two from the same State. The senatorial regents are designated by the president of the Senate and those representing the House by the speaker of the House, the others being elected by Congress with the ap proval of the President. There is a secretary to the establishment, who is also secretary to the board of regents. Both the Congressional and citizen regents have been selected from among the most distinguished Americans and the roll of them for 50 years contains the names of many eminent public men and scholars. The regents elect three of their number as an exec utive committee. The presiding officer of the regents is the chancellor and is elected by the board, though the position is customarily held by the chief justice. The secretary of the in
stitution, whose office is created by the funda mental act, is elected by the regents and is the executive officer of the institution. He is aided in his work by the assistant secretary, by the heads of the various bureaus of the institution and by a large corps of scientific men.
The institution occupies a building in the Mall, in the square known as the Smithsonian Park. It was planned by James Renwick, was begun in 1847 and completed in 1855.
The first secretary was Joseph Henry, dis tinguished in science for his epoch-making dis coveries. It fell to his lot more than it could to any of his successors to determine what form the institution should take and his '