America's attic

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), July, 1996

Poking around the Smithsonian Institution on its 150th anniversary uncovers an extremely varied assortment of fascinating items that make it possible to sense the momentum of history.

THE NATION'S treasures are too vast to find a home in a single building. Fortunately for the U.S., a generous bequest from a 19th-century Englishman provided the financing for a virtual empire of exhibition sites to house a wide-ranging collection of art and objects. Now numbering 14 venues in Washington, D.C., and New York, the Smithsonian Institution encompasses such an eclectic assortment of items--from priceless jewels to scientific wonders to historic artifacts to memorabilia of popular culture--that it is a repository worthy of the appellation, "America's Attic."

In 1826, James Smithson, a British scientist, drew up his last will and testament, naming his nephew as beneficiary. Smithson stipulated that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he would in 1835), the estate should go "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

The motives behind Smithson's bequest remain mysterious. He never traveled to the U.S. and seems to have had no correspondence with anyone there. Some have suggested that his bequest was motivated in part by revenge against the rigidities of British society, which had denied Smithson, who was born out of wedlock, the right to use his father's name. Others have suggested it reflected his interest in the Enlightenment ideals of democracy and universal education.

Smithson died in 1829 and, six years later, Pres. Andrew Jackson announced the bequest to Congress. On July 1, 1836, Congress accepted the legacy bequeathed to the nation and pledged the faith of the U.S. to the charitable trust. In September, 1838, Smithson's legacy, which amounted to more than 100,000 gold sovereigns, was delivered to the mint in Philadelphia. Recoined in U.S. currency, the gift amounted to more than $500,000.

After eight years of sometimes heated debate, an Act of Congress signed by Pres. James K. Polk on Aug. 10, 1846, established the Smithsonian Institution as a trust to be administered by a Board of Regents and a Secretary of the Smithsonian. It conducts scientific and scholarly research, administers the national collections, and performs educational public service functions, supported by trust endowments and revenues, gifts, grants, contracts, and funds appropriated by the Congress.

In 1847, work began on the Smithsonian's first building, the Castle, designed by James Renwick. For more than 30 years after its completion in 1855, the Castle contained the Institution's laboratories, offices, art gallery, and natural history specimens. It also served as a home for Secretary Joseph Henry and his family, as well as a residence for bachelor scientists. In 1865, a fire destroyed the roof and second floor of the building's central section, together with most of the Institution's early records. During the 1880s, much of the Castle was remodeled and enlarged. It now serves as the Smithsonian's administrative headquarters and houses the Smithsonian Information Center for visitors.

The Arts and Industries Building, adjacent to the Castle, was designed to meet the need for more exhibit space after the Smithsonian acquired material from the 1876 Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. Originally known as the National Museum Building, it first was used on March 4, 1881, for Pres. James Garfield's inaugural ball. The museum was renamed in 1910 when all natural history collections (including fossils, minerals, and gems) were moved to the new Natural History Building. The remaining collections including musical instruments, postage stamps, and first ladies' gowns) were moved again in 1964 to the newly opened Museum of History and Technology, leaving only an aeronautics exhibit. The building presently is the site of the 1976 Bicentennial exhibit.

In 1888 and again in 1890, an Act of Congress provided for a National Zoological Park to be established under the Smithsonian's aegis in a 175-acre tract in Rock Creek Park. The zoo began as a menagerie behind the Castle, housing a small herd of buffalo and other animals.

In 1903, Harriet Lane Johnson, the niece of Pres. James Buchanan, died and left her art collection to the Smithsonian. Today, it is in the National Museum of American Art, home to the world's largest collection of American art. The museum holds some 35,000 works reflecting the nation's ethnic, geographic, and religious diversity. It previously has been known as the National Gallery of Art and the National Collection of Fine Arts.

The third Smithsonian building erected on the National Mall was the granite-faced Natural History Building, also called the new National Museum. Although construction wasn't completed until 1911, staff began to move collections into the building in 1909. In 1969, its official name was changed to the National Museum of Natural History.