Science: Parent

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In 1826 a not very happy James Smithson of England sat down to write his will. He had half a million dollars but only a nephew to enjoy them. He was 61 and infirm. His father, the Duke of Northumberland, had never married his mother, a Tudor lady. He had spent his life less among men than in the pursuit of knowledge— mixing chemicals, examining minerals, pondering the earth's origin, improving oil lamps. He had never been in the U. S. but it occurred to him that in such a young country on such a rich continent at such an epochal moment in the history of science, invention and industry, there must be ample room for a fund to keep men's understanding abreast of men's undertakings.* James Smithson signed his whole estate over to the U. S. Government "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

James Smithson died. The clipper Mediator brought $104,960 in gold sovereigns to Philadelphia, where they were recoined into $508,318.46. Five U. S. Congresses tried to define "knowledge" and how best to "increase" and "diffuse" it. John Quincy Adams and Richard Rush were among those who contributed the basic ideas of a charter that was finally adopted (1846), making the Smithsonian Institution a private affair under the guardianship of the Federal Government. The President, Vice President, Chief Justice and members of the Cabinet were made the Smithsonian "establishment." Three Senators, three Representatives and six citizens at large constituted, with the Vice President and Chief Justice, a board of regents.

The first board of regents consulted leading contemporary scientists—Faraday, Bache, Silliman —;who unanimously averred that Joseph Henry, natural historian and physicist at Princeton, was "without a peer in American science." Joseph Henry relinquished his private researches and gave 32 years, as the Institution's first secretary, to making its charter into a reality.

To "increase" knowledge he offered awards and subsidies to investigators. A young man named Alexander Graham Bell was discouraged over some experiments he had tried with magnets. Joseph Henry was sympathetic. The telephone was made. Joseph Henry enlisted volunteers to record what kind of days passed in different cities. Out of that grew the U. S. Weather Bureau.

To "diffuse" knowledge, Joseph Henry published reports and memoirs for people who had investigated this and that. He exchanged these publications for similar literature published abroad. He persuaded the Library of Congress to care for all the pamphlets, manuscripts and books he thus accumulated. Similarly he persuaded Congress to build a national museum to house all the specimens of the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms that poured in upon him.

The Smithsonian thus pursued wide activities without spending more than its income. When convenient, it turned over its ever multiplying departments to 'the Government for support, continuing only to supervise. Thus arose the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, the U. S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the National Zoological Park, the National Gallery of Art.