The Smithsonian Institution ( ), also known simply as The Smithsonian, is a trust instrumentality of the United States composed as a group of museums and research centers. It was founded on August 10, 1846, "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. It was originally organized as the "United States National Museum", but that name ceased to exist as an administrative entity in 1967. Termed "the nation's attic" for its eclectic holdings of 154 million items, the Institution's 19 museums, 21 libraries, nine research centers, and zoo include historical and architectural landmarks, mostly located in the District of Columbia.
Introduction
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution | Introduction
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who was adam eckfeldt?
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John Adam Eckfeldt was a worker and official of the United States Mint.
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when did he start designing coins?
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1793
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which coins did he work on in the mint?
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1792 half disme
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what was his contribution as a chief coiner?
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He put aside interesting foreign coins sent to the mint as bullion. These pieces became the Mint's Cabinet, or coin collection.
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where is this collection housed?
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Smithsonian Institution
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when was it founded?
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The Smithsonian Institution ( ), also known simply as The Smithsonian, is a trust instrumentality of the United States composed as a group of museums and research centers. It was founded on August 10, 1846, "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. It was originally organized as the "United States National Museum", but that name ceased to exist as an administrative entity in 1967. Termed "the nation's attic" for its eclectic holdings of 154 million items, the Institution's 19 museums, 21 libraries, nine research centers, and zoo include historical and architectural landmarks, mostly located in the District of Columbia.
Smithsonian Institution | Introduction
Finally, on August 10, 1846, President James K. Polk signed the legislation that established the Smithsonian Institution as a trust instrumentality of the United States, to be administered by a Board of Regents and a secretary of the Smithsonian.
Smithsonian Institution | Founding
The British scientist James Smithson (1765–1829) left most of his wealth to his nephew Henry James Hungerford. When Hungerford died childless in 1835, the estate passed "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men", in accordance with Smithson's will. Congress officially accepted the legacy bequeathed to the nation and pledged the faith of the United States to the charitable trust on July 1, 1836. The American diplomat Richard Rush was dispatched to England by President Andrew Jackson to collect the bequest.
Smithsonian Institution | Founding
The United States National Museum was founded in 1846 as part of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum was initially housed in the Smithsonian Institution Building, which is better known today as the Smithsonian Castle. A formal exhibit hall opened in 1858. The growing collection led to the construction of a new building, the National Museum Building (known today as the Arts and Industries Building). Covering a then-enormous , it was built in just 15 months at a cost of $310,000. It opened in March 1881. Congress authorized construction of a new building on June 28, 1902. On January 29, 1903, a special committee composed of members of Congress and representatives from the Smithsonian's board of regents published a report asking Congress to fund a much larger structure than originally planned.
National Museum of Natural History | 1846–1911
The original library was founded by an Act of Congress on August 10, 1846, when the Smithsonian Institution was named a trust instrumentality of the United States. The Act created a Board of Regents for the Institution, and called for a building to house a museum with geological and mineralogical cabinets, a chemical laboratory, a gallery of art, lecture rooms, and a library. The Smithsonian Libraries system as it exists today was not established until 1968, when Secretary S. Dillon Ripley realized that the existing library organization was greatly in need of an overhaul. He created a new position, Director of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and hired Russell Shank to fill the role.
Smithsonian Libraries | History
Partly due to Adams's efforts, Congress voted to establish the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. A nonpolitical board of regents was established to lead the institution, which included a museum, art gallery, library, and laboratory.
John Quincy Adams | Smithsonian Institution
The foundations for the present collections were first assembled in the former Museum of the American Indian in New York City, which was established in 1916, and which became part of the Smithsonian in 1989.
National Museum of the American Indian | Introduction
Smithson died in 1829, and in 1836, President Andrew Jackson informed Congress of the gift, which it accepted. In 1838, Smithson's legacy, which totaled more than $500,000, was delivered to the United States Mint and entered the Treasury. After eight years, in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution was established. The Smithsonian Institution Building (also known as "The Castle") was completed in 1855 to house an art gallery, a library, a chemical laboratory, lecture halls, museum galleries, and offices. During this time the Smithsonian was a learning institution concerned mainly with enhancing science and less interested in being a museum. Under the second secretary, Spencer Fullerton Baird, the Smithsonian turned into a full-fledged museum, mostly through the acquisition of 60 boxcars worth of displays from the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
List of Smithsonian museums | Introduction
Housed in the Patent Office Building, these were the precursor to the Smithsonian Institution collection. The cabinet was managed by a group of scientists in 1840 and others to secure control of the Smithson bequest and create a National Museum in Washington.
National Institute for the Promotion of Science | Introduction
Rush returned in August 1838 with 105 sacks containing 104,960 gold sovereigns. This is approximately $500,000 at the time, which is or . However, when considering the GDP at the time it may be a more accurate comparison to $220 million in today's terms. Once the money was in hand, eight years of Congressional haggling ensued over how to interpret Smithson's rather vague mandate "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Unfortunately, the money was invested by the US Treasury in bonds issued by the state of Arkansas, which soon defaulted. After heated debate, Massachusetts representative (and former president) John Quincy Adams persuaded Congress to restore the lost funds with interest and, despite designs on the money for other purposes, convinced his colleagues to preserve it for an institution of science and learning.
Smithsonian Institution | Founding
They were essentially the same group who were to succeed in persuading the government to found the National Gallery in 1824, and whose gifts to it provided most of the early collection. There was a total group of 125 Governors, Directors and Subscribers, paying sums between 100 guineas (56 of them, 35 at 50g., 11 at 10g.) down to one guinea annually. In 1805 the initial subscribers consisted of "One duke, five marquesses, fourteen earls, two viscounts, nine lords, two bishops, four ladies, seven baronets, twenty-two members of parliament, five clergymen and above fifty private gentlemen, bankers and merchants". The Institution had been discussed with the Royal Academy before it was established, and relations were friendly, at least initially, though later there were to be tensions.
British Institution | Founding
Construction began on the Smithsonian Institution Building ("the Castle") in 1849. Designed by architect James Renwick Jr., its interiors were completed by general contractor Gilbert Cameron. The building opened in 1855. The Smithsonian's first expansion came with construction of the Arts and Industries Building in 1881. Congress had promised to build a new structure for the museum if the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition generated enough income. It did, and the building was designed by architects Adolf Cluss and Paul Schulze, based on original plans developed by Major General Montgomery C. Meigs of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It opened in 1881.
Smithsonian Institution | Museums and buildings
The National Institution for the Promotion of Science organization was established in Washington, D.C. in May, 1840, and was heir to the mantle of the earlier "Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences". The National Institution for the Promotion of Science was later renamed the "National Institute" and eventually became a part of the Smithsonian Institution. The National Institute was the initial repository for collections of artifacts brought to the US by the United States Exploring Expedition, as well as various other object accumulated by the government, such as items owned by early American politicians, patent models, and natural objects.
National Institute for the Promotion of Science | Introduction
Several years later, large donations of artifact collections led to the formation of new museums for subjects such as African art, American Indian culture and postal history and a new library branch was subsequently formed for each of these as well.
Smithsonian Libraries | History
The income from the exhibition of these artifacts allowed for the construction of the National Museum, which is now known as the Arts and Industries Building. This structure was opened in 1881 to provide the Smithsonian with its first proper facility for public display of the growing collections.
List of Smithsonian museums | Introduction
The British Institution was founded in June 1805 by a group of private subscribers who met in the Thatched House Tavern in London. A committee was formed, and in September of that year it purchased the lease of the former Boydell Shakespeare Gallery building at 52 Pall Mall, with 62 years remaining, for a premium of £4,500 and an annual ground rent of £125. The British Institution opened at the Pall Mall site on 18 January 1806. The founding "Hereditory Governors" included Sir George Beaumont, 7th Baronet and Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough, both of whom had employed the services of the leading dealer and picture-cleaner William Seguier, and were probably responsible for his appointment as "Superintendent".
British Institution | Founding
The National Zoological Park opened in 1889 to accommodate the Smithsonian's Department of Living Animals. The park was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Smithsonian Institution | Museums and buildings
Later in the year of his death the United States government was informed about the bequest when Aaron Vail wrote to Secretary of State John Forsyth. This information was then passed onto President Andrew Jackson who then informed Congress; a committee was organized, and after much debate the Smithsonian Institution was established by legislation. In 1836 President Jackson sent Richard Rush, former Treasury Secretary, to England as Commissioner to proceed in Chancery Court to secure the funds. In 1838 he was successful and returned, accompanied by 104,960 gold sovereigns (in eleven crates) and Smithson's personal items, scientific notes, minerals, and library.
James Smithson | Legacy and the Smithsonian
Though the Smithsonian's first secretary, Joseph Henry, wanted the institution to be a center for scientific research, it also became the depository for various Washington and U.S. government collections. The United States Exploring Expedition by the U.S. Navy circumnavigated the globe between 1838 and 1842. The voyage amassed thousands of animal specimens, an herbarium of 50,000 plant specimens, and diverse shells and minerals, tropical birds, jars of seawater, and ethnographic artifacts from the South Pacific Ocean. These specimens and artifacts became part of the Smithsonian collections, as did those collected by several military and civilian surveys of the American West, including the Mexican Boundary Survey and Pacific Railroad Surveys, which assembled many Native American artifacts and natural history specimens.
Smithsonian Institution | Development
In 1957, a proposal was made by the federal government to demolish the Old Patent Office Building. After a public outcry and an agreement to save the historic structure, Congress authorized the Smithsonian Institution to use the structure as a museum in March 1958. Shortly thereafter, the Smithsonian Art Commission asked the Chancellor of the Smithsonian to appoint a committee to organize a national portrait museum and to plan for the establishment of this museum in the Old Patent Office Building. This committee was created in 1960.
National Portrait Gallery (United States) | Founding of the museum
Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithson's bequest, that would fund the Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of each classification of a field of knowledge for research and for display was the purpose. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they developed their own natural history collections for the use of their students. By the last quarter of the 19th century, the scientific research in the universities was shifting toward biological research on a cellular level, and cutting edge research moved from museums to university laboratories.
Museum | Purpose
Established in 1976 with a donation from Bern Dibner, the Dibner Library is housed in the National Museum of American History. The Cullman Library of Natural History holds some 10,000 volumes published before 1840 in the fields of anthropology and natural sciences. The Cullman Library is also located at the National Museum of Natural History.
Smithsonian Libraries | Special collections
The regents began considering sites for the new building in March, and by April 12 settled on a site on the north side of B Street NW between 9th and 12th Streets. The D.C. architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall was chosen to design the structure. Testing of the soil for the foundations was set for July 1903, with construction expected to take three years. The Natural History Building (as the National Museum of Natural History was originally known) opened its doors to the public on March 17, 1910, in order to provide the Smithsonian Institution with more space for collections and research.
National Museum of Natural History | 1846–1911
Albert S. Bickmore. Bickmore, a one-time student of zoologist Louis Agassiz, lobbied tirelessly for years for the establishment of a natural history museum in New York. His proposal, backed by his powerful sponsors, won the support of the Governor of New York, John Thompson Hoffman, who signed a bill officially creating the American Museum of Natural History on April 6, 1869.
American Museum of Natural History | Founding
The founding convention was held in the library of the American Museum of Natural History on September 26, 1883. Founding members of the AOU include those present at the inaugural convention, listed below. In addition, the members of the new Union unanimously enrolled two others as founding members: Professor S. Baird, who was unable to attend due to his duties at the Smithsonian, and J. A. Allen, who could not attend due to physical disability.
American Ornithological Society | History
Before construction of the present complex, the museum was housed in the Arsenal building in Central Park. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., the father of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. president, was one of the founders along with John David Wolfe, William T. Blodgett, Robert L. Stuart, Andrew H. Green, Robert Colgate, Morris K. Jesup, Benjamin H. Field, D. Jackson Steward, Richard M. Blatchford, J. P. Morgan, Adrian Iselin, Moses H. Grinnell, Benjamin B. Sherman, A. G. Phelps Dodge, William A. Haines, Charles A. Dana, Joseph H. Choate, Henry G. Stebbins, Henry Parish, and Howard Potter. The founding of the museum realized the dream of naturalist Dr.
American Museum of Natural History | Founding
The Smithsonian American Art Museum has had many names over the years—Smithsonian Art Collection, National Gallery of Art (not to be confused with the current National Gallery of Art), National Collection of Fine Arts, and National Museum of American Art. The museum adopted its current name in October 2000. The collection, which was begun in 1829, was first on display in the original Smithsonian Building, now nicknamed the "Castle". The collection grew as the Smithsonian buildings grew, and the collection was housed in one or more Smithsonian buildings on the National Mall. By the 1920s, space had become critical: "Collections to the value of several millions of dollars are in storage or temporarily on exhibition and are crowding out important exhibits and producing a congested condition in the Natural History, Industrial Arts, and Smithsonian Buildings".
Smithsonian American Art Museum | History
Founded by Thomas Dent Mutter in 1858 for medical research, the museum's contents include medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, and antique medical equipment. Anatomical specimens include the conjoined liver of Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker; and a section of the brain of Charles J. Guiteau, who assassinated President Garfield. Medical instruments include a wooden stethoscope and Marie Curie's quartz-piezo electrometer
College of Physicians of Philadelphia | Museum
The website's quality was poor, and the center did not have a public affairs manager, a programs director, adequate human resources support, or cohesive mission statement.
Smithsonian Institution | History
Congress mandated a Smithsonian Institution art museum for the National Mall, and a design by Eliel Saarinen was unveiled in 1939, but plans were shelved during World War II. A 1966 act of the U.S. Congress established the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden as part of the Smithsonian Institution with a focus on modern art, in contrast to the existing National Art Gallery. The museum was primarily federally funded, although New York financier Joseph Hirshhorn later contributed $1 million toward building construction, which began in 1969. The Hirshhorn opened in 1974.
Great Society | Cultural centers
The collections have grown primarily through gifts since the founding of Hofstra University in 1935, prior to the establishment of the Museum, and there have been many local contributors to the Museum’s collections. The Museum is noteworthy for African art and objects; Asian art is another area of strength with works dating from the seventh to the twentieth century.
Hofstra University Museum | Introduction
The Smithsonian Institution began publishing consolidated compilations of quarto-sized papers in 1848, under the name "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge". In 1862 octavo-sized papers called "Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections" were added, followed by the monographic "Bulletin of the United States National Museum" in 1875, and the compiled "Proceedings of the United States National Museum" in 1878. "Annual Reports" of Smithsonian Institution administrative and scholarly achievements, and accessions to the collections, began issuing in 1881, with accession and donor information being split off in 1993 as the "Annals of the Smithsonian Institution". The "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge" ceased publication in 1916, followed by the cessation of the "Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections" in 1968, and the "Bulletin of the United States National Museum" in 1971.
Smithsonian Contributions and Studies Series | History
The USDA closed the station in 1973, leaving the site temporarily vacant. The Conservation and Research Center was founded in 1974 when the director of the National Zoo, Dr. Theodore Reed, recognized the need for a captive breeding facility and initiated negotiations to obtain the land. The title was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1975, and work was begun immediately on developing the site into a zoological research facility.
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute | History
From 1807 prizes were given to artists and surplus funds were used to buy paintings for the nation.
British Institution | Introduction
The Prince Regent was Patron from the foundation, and loans from the Royal Collection continued throughout the life of the Institution. In 1822 the hereditary nature of the Governors was eased out, as they were becoming far too numerous, and the bottom end of the Subscribership tightened up.
British Institution | Founding
The EcoTarium was founded in 1825 as the Worcester Lyceum of Natural History. The first spaces dedicated to the museum were the Natural History Rooms on the third floor of the Worcester Bank Block on Foster Street, which opened on October 1, 1867. In 1891 the museum and its collection moved to the Old Edwin Conant Mansion at the corner of State and Harvard streets. As the collection grew more and more space was needed. In 1954 the museum moved exhibits to the Daniels House and the Rice House at 41 Elm street, both in Worcester. The final move took place in 1971 to a new building, designed by Edward Durell Stone, built on of donated land.
EcoTarium | History
The Smithsonian Affiliations program was established in 1996 by Smithsonian Secretary I. Michael Heyman with the approval of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, in response to several challenges the Institution faced at the time: a decrease in federal funding, limited storage space for expanding collections, and the need to make the Institution more reflective of the nation without operating additional museums outside of Washington, D.C.
Smithsonian Affiliations | History
The Cooper Hewitt Museum was founded in 1896. It was originally named Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration and it fell under the wing of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In 1895, the granddaughters of Peter Cooper, Sarah Cooper Hewitt, Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Amy Hewitt Green, asked the Cooper Union for a space to create a Museum for the Arts of Decoration. The museum would take its inspiration from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. The museum would serve as a place for Cooper Union students and professional designers to study decorative arts collections.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum | History
On September 21, 2004, for the inauguration of the Museum, Senator Inouye addressed an audience of around 20,000 American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, which was the largest gathering in Washington D.C. of indigenous people to its time. The creation of the museum brought together the collections of the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City, founded in 1922, and the Smithsonian Institution. The Heye collection became part of the Smithsonian in June 1990, and represents approximately 85% of the holdings of the NMAI. The Heye Collection was formerly displayed at Audubon Terrace in Uptown Manhattan, but had long been seeking a new building.
National Museum of the American Indian | History
He was also a member of the Delegacy (building committee), established on 8 April 1854, that set up the Oxford University Museum.
Frederick Charles Plumptre | Introduction
The museum was founded in 1921 by David Ross McCord, based on his own family collection of objects. Since then, the museum's holdings have increased substantially.
McCord Museum | Collection
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 for the purposes of opening a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. The Fifth Avenue building opened on February 20, 1872, at 681 Fifth Avenue.
Metropolitan Museum of Art | Introduction
The museum opened in 1988 and received numerous awards.
Leslie Hardcastle | Introduction
The museum was founded in 1816 with the legacy of the library and art collection of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam. The bequest included £100,000 "to cause to be erected a good substantial museum repository". The Fitzwilliam now contains over 500,000 items and is one of the best museums in the United Kingdom. The collection was initially placed in the Perse School building in Free School Lane. It was moved in 1842 to the Old Schools in central Cambridge, which housed the Cambridge University Library. The "Founder's Building" was built during the period 1837–1843 to the designs of George Basevi, completed by C.
Fitzwilliam Museum | Foundation and buildings
The museum eventually outgrew its building.
Allard Pierson Museum | Founding
The surviving volumes now make up the Founders' Collection. Brown University moved to Providence in 1770, and the library offered students the use of its books. In 1836, the Providence Library Company merged with the Providence Atheneum (founded in 1831), and the merged organization became known as the Providence Athenaeum. On December 23, 1848, Sarah Helen Whitman broke off her relationship with Edgar Allan Poe in the building.
Providence Athenaeum | History
The Smithsonian museums are the most widely visible part of the United States' Smithsonian Institution and consist of 20 museums and galleries as well as the National Zoological Park. 17 of these collections are located in Washington D.C., with 11 of those located on the National Mall. The remaining ones are in New York City and Chantilly, Virginia. The Arts and Industries Building, is only open for special events, and its newest museum building, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened in 2016. The birth of the Smithsonian Institution can be traced to the acceptance of James Smithson's legacy, willed to the United States in 1826.
List of Smithsonian museums | Introduction
From 1842-43, Pickering curated the collection from the Wilkes Expedition, which was housed at the Patent Office in Washington DC, these collections were to form the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution.
Charles Pickering (naturalist) | Biography
Shank reorganized the library staff and procedures, and created a modern, unified system with central services and a union catalog. By 1977, when Shank left, the quality and research value of the scientific collections were recognized nationally, and SIL was invited to join the Association of Research Libraries. SIL was granted a seat on the executive board of the Federal Libraries and Information Centers Coordinating Committee. The late 1970s and 1980s also saw a growth in the number of Smithsonian Libraries branches, brought about by a range of donations to the Institution. In 1976, ten thousand rare scientific books and manuscripts were gifted to the Smithsonian by the Burndy Library, prompting the creation of the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology under the Smithsonian umbrella.
Smithsonian Libraries | History
The New York State Museum was founded in 1836 as the New York State Geological and Natural History Survey, formed in 1836 by Governor William Marcy to document the mineral wealth of the state. In 1870, it was reorganized as the New York State Museum of Natural History under the trusteeship of the regents of the State University. The museum was located in the State Education Building from 1912 until 1976, when it was moved to the Cultural Education Center upon the Empire State Plaza's completion. The current location opened on July 4, 1976, and 15,000 people took part in the ceremony which included a performance by Don Mclean.
New York State Museum | History
Throughout the Collegiate School's nascence in the early eighteenth century, books were the most valuable assets the school could acquire. Although New Haven Colony founder John Davenport began collecting books for a college library in New Haven in the 1650s, the college is said to have been founded by the gift of “forty folios” in Branford, Connecticut by its ten founding Congregational ministers. All were theological texts, and those surviving are now stored in the Beinecke Library. In the school's first three decades, three gifts established Yale's collection. In 1714, Jeremiah Dummer, Connecticut's colonial agent in Boston, wrote to distinguished English scholars requesting gifts of books for the colony's college, then operating in Saybrook, Connecticut.
Yale University Library | Establishment (1650–1786)
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational foundation that was created with the funds from British scientist James Smithson in 1846. The institution is composed of 19 museums and one zoo in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian's locations had a combined total of 30 million visits in 2013. The most visited museum is the National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall. Other Smithsonian Institution museums and galleries on the mall are the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African Art, the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Sackler and Freer galleries, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Arts and Industries Building, the S.
Arts and culture of Washington, D.C. | Smithsonian Institution
Ayer was also an early benefactor of the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), instrumental in its foundation and serving as its first president. The FMNH arose from the collections assembled for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, as the curator in charge of the collections F.W. Putnam sought to establish a permanent exhibition of the materials. As one of the museum's incorporators, Ayer set to work establishing an endowment fund, and approached the retail magnate Marshall Field (after whom the museum was later named) for contributions. Field was initially reluctant, reportedly declaring "I don't know anything about a museum, and I don't care to know anything about a museum".
Edward E. Ayer | Book and manuscript collections
The museum was founded in 1869 by the anthropologist and collector Paolo Mantegazza. The collection includes objects from the Medici inventories, some donated by explorers to the corners of the world. The eclectic items include from Peru; kimonos from Japan; skull trophies from New Guinea, and other objects. A collection of objects from India were collected by the orientalist Angelo De Gubernatis.
Palazzo Nonfinito | Anthropology and Ethnology Section of Museum of Natural History
He expanded his collection to warehouses, an apartment in New York City, and an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, with extensive area for sculpture. A 1962 sculpture show at New York's Guggenheim Museum awakened an international art community to the breadth of Hirshhorn's holdings. Word of his collection of modern and contemporary paintings also circulated, and institutions in Italy, Israel, Canada, California, and New York City vied for the collection. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley successfully campaigned for a new museum on the National Mall.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Founding
The Founders Library in Washington, D.C. is the main library at Howard University. The building, named The Founders Library in honor of the 17 men who founded Howard University, serves as the iconic symbol of the University. Designed by architect Albert Irvin Cassell, construction began in 1937 during the presidency of Mordecai Wyatt Johnson. As the second library built for the University, the cornerstone was laid on June 10, 1937, and the building was opened for service on January 3, 1939. Today, the library houses over 1 million volumes, the Channing Pollock Theater Collection, and is the home to the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
Founders Library | Introduction
On Founder's Day, a celebration for the founding of the University every year on February 18. The original founding date of the University was February 18, 1804.
Manasseh Cutler Hall | Today's Uses
The Smithsonian Institution was established as a trust instrumentality by act of Congress. More than two-thirds of the Smithsonian's workforce of some 6,300 persons are employees of the federal government. The Smithsonian Office of Protection Services oversees security at the Smithsonian facilities and enforces laws and regulations for National Capital Parks together with the United States Park Police. The president's 2011 budget proposed just under $800 million in support for the Smithsonian, slightly increased from previous years. Institution exhibits are free of charge, though in 2010 the Deficit Commission recommended admission fees. As approved by Congress on August 10, 1846, the legislation that created the Smithsonian Institution called for the creation of a Board of Regents to govern and administer the organization.
Smithsonian Institution | Administration
Congress." In 1859, Congress transferred the library's public document distribution activities to the Department of the Interior and its international book exchange program to the Department of State. During the 1850s, Smithsonian Institution librarian Charles Coffin Jewett aggressively tried to make the Smithsonian into the United States' national library. His efforts were blocked by Smithsonian secretary Joseph Henry, who advocated a focus on scientific research and publication. To reinforce his intentions for the Smithsonian, Henry established laboratories, developed a robust physical sciences library and started the "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge", the first of many publications intended to disseminate research results.
Library of Congress | 1851–1865: Weakening
The museum was founded by two antique collectors; Dallas Pratt (August 21, 1914 – May 20, 1994), an American psychiatrist from New York and heir to a substantial Standard Oil fortune; and John Judkyn (1913 – July 27, 1963), a British designer and antiques dealer. The museum was opened to the public for the first time on July 1, 1961, and remains the only museum devoted to American decorative arts outside the boundaries of the United States. The museum's mission today stays true to the ambitions of its founders; to increase knowledge of American cultural history in order to strengthen the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.
American Museum and Gardens | Museum
In addition to his geological survey work, Owen had a minor role in the preliminary design of the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C.. In 1846 he also recommended the Seneca Quarry's distinctive, dark-red Seneca Creek sandstone that was used in its construction. The following year Owen identified a quarry at Bull Run, twenty-three miles from nation's capital, that provided the stone for the project. David Owen and architect Robert Mills developed preliminary plans for the Smithsonian Institution's new building while his brother, U.S. Congressman Robert Dale Owen, introduced and helped to secure passage of the bill that founded the Smithsonian Institution in 1846, served on the Institution's first Board of Regents, and chaired its Building Committee.
David Dale Owen | Smithsonian Institution contributions
In 1936, the museum's founders envisioned a safe and stimulating sanctuary where children and families could learn about the natural world, the agricultural sciences, astronomy, art, and history. Dr. G.R.R Hertzberg brought this philosophy to the first organizational meeting of the museum on January 20, 1936. The Stamford Museum was founded five months later, as a “cabinet of curiosities” model occupying three rooms at the Stamford Trust Company building at 300 Main Street. The original collection grew from community donations of birds, moths, butterflies, and other geological specimens. Opened to the public on June 27, 1936, this early incarnation of the museum drew families from the area, still its prime demographic today.
Stamford Museum &amp; Nature Center | History
In 1874, the cornerstone was laid for the museum's first building, which is now hidden from view by the many buildings in the complex that today occupy most of Manhattan Square. The original Victorian Gothic building, which was opened in 1877, was designed by Calvert Vaux and J. Wrey Mould, both already closely identified with the architecture of Central Park.
American Museum of Natural History | Construction
The museum in its current form opened in 1998 and is famous for its pathological and anatomical collection.
Charité | Organization
The Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences (1816–1838) was a literary and science institution in Washington, D.C., founded by Dr. Edward Cutbush (1772–1843), a naval surgeon. Thomas Law had earlier suggested of such a society "at the seat of government." It was the first "learned society" established in Washington and was organized on June 28, 1816, sixteen years after the city was occupied, and less than two years after the invasion by the British troops. The second article of its constitution states: "The Institute shall consist of mathematical, physical, moral and political sciences, general literature and fine arts."
Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences | Introduction
This new corporation, under the combined resources of the Kelley and Huntington estates, commenced the construction of the museum in May 1913, and formally opened it to the public on June 6, 1916.
Horace Kelley | Philanthropy
The collection of ancient American art received its proper attention following the 1967 appointment of Gillett G. Griffin as faculty curator, a position held by him until 2004. The current collection is largely the result of his efforts, both through his own collections and his influence on donors.
Princeton University Art Museum | Pre-Columbian art
was founded and incorporated in 2007.
Why U | History
The Coolidge Library began in 1920 when Coolidge began donating various records and memorabilia to the Forbes Library. This collection was furthered in 1956 when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts established the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Room at the behest of Grace Coolidge.
Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum | Foundation
At the time of its creation, the Smithsonian Institution had other entities dedicated to other minority groups: National Museum of the American Indian, Freer-Sackler Gallery for Asian Arts and Culture, African Art Museum, and the National Museum of African-American Heritage and Culture. The opening of the center was prompted, in part, by the publishing of a report called "Willful Neglect: The Smithsonian and U.S. Latinos". According to documents obtained by "The Washington Post", when former Latino Center executive director Pilar O'Leary first took the job, the center faced employees who had "serious performance issues". No performance plans existed for the staff and unfulfilled financial obligations to sponsors existed.
Smithsonian Institution | History
The specimens of the Museum date from 1800s to the present, and are arranged into distinct collections: Zoological, Botanical, Pharmaceutical, Microscope Slide and Craniofacial Skeletal collections. These include skeletons, fluid-preserved material, taxidermy, dried items, fossils, microscope and a herbarium of plant material.
Museum of Life Sciences | Introduction
The museum's governing body, the Bexhill Museum Association, was founded in 1923.
Bexhill Museum | History
With Sir William Jenner and Edward Sieveking he founded Museum of Hygiene at University College, London in 1877, which was formally incorporated under license of the Board of Trade. It was moved in 1882 from University College to new premises in Margaret Street, Cavendish Square.
George Vivian Poore | Life
His collection is held by the Smithsonian Institution Washington D. C.
Sievert Allen Rohwer | Introduction
The contents of the latter collection, including the first intact mastodon, were relocated to the American Museum of Natural History of New York City in 1906.
Museum of Science (Boston) | Origin and early years
The first true national library was founded in 1753 as part of the British Museum. This new institution was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. The museum's foundations lay in the will of the physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane, who gathered an enviable collection of curiosities over his lifetime which he bequeathed to the nation for £20,000. Sloane's collection included some 40,000 printed books and 7,000 manuscripts, as well as prints and drawings. The British Museum Act 1753 also incorporated the Cotton library and the Harleian library.
National library | National libraries
Planning Process Discussions related to building a state of the art library on the campus of Howard University began in 1929. In that year, the U.S. Congress appropriated $1 million for the construction of the library. At the time, the university's library collection was housed in the Carnegie Library also located on the main campus. Opened in 1910, the Carnegie Library allowed for the expansion the library collection and number of which facilitated easier usage of the collection. Prior to this period, the library collection was scattered between the main building and individual libraries in each college. By 1929, the collection had grown to over 85,000 volumes and continued expanding through yearly appropriations of $4,000.
Founders Library | History
Smithsonian is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970.
Smithsonian (magazine) | Introduction
In 1960 the Anne Frank Huis became a museum.
Anne Frank Foundation | Introduction
He is considered to be one of the founders of the museum along with John Huntington, Hinman Hurlbut, and Jeptha Wade II.
Horace Kelley | Introduction
The Smithsonian Institution Building, located near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. behind the National Museum of African Art and the Sackler Gallery, houses the Smithsonian Institution's administrative offices and information center. The building is constructed of Seneca red sandstone in the Norman Revival style (a 12th-century combination of late Romanesque and early Gothic motifs; built in the Gothic and Romanesque revival styles) and is nicknamed The Castle. It was completed in 1855 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
Smithsonian Institution Building | Introduction
The creation of the Art Museum in a more formal sense took place under the leadership of James McCosh, who served as president of the College of New Jersey from 1868–88. The Scottish McCosh brought with him from Europe new progressive academic disciplines, including the history of art. By 1882, McCosh charged William Cowper Prime, a Princeton alumnus and founding trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and George B. McClellan, the Civil War general and then Governor of New Jersey, with creating a curriculum in the subject. They argued: "The foundation of any system of education in Historic Art must obviously be in object study.
Princeton University Art Museum | Establishment
The Historical Society was founded on November 20, 1804, largely through the efforts of John Pintard. He was for some years secretary of the American Academy of Fine Arts, as well as the founder of New York's first savings bank. He was also among the first to agitate for a free school system. The first meeting comprised 11 of the city's most prominent citizens, including Mayor DeWitt Clinton. At the meeting, a committee was selected to draw up a constitution, and by December 10, the Historical Society was officially organized. According to the Historical Society's first catalogue, printed in 1813, the museum then held 4,265 books, as well as 234 volumes of United States documents, 119 almanacs, 130 titles of newspapers, 134 maps, and 30 miscellaneous views.
New-York Historical Society | Early history
The model married the traditions of European subsidy for the arts with American independence and capitalism. The pattern was established with the American Museum of Natural History in 1877, followed by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1878; New York Botanical Garden, 1891; Bronx Zoo, 1895; Brooklyn Museum, 1897; Brooklyn Children's Museum, 1899. After the turn of the 20th century, four additional organizations negotiated agreements with the city: Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1908; Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1909; Museum of the City of New York, 1922; Staten Island Zoological Society, 1936.
Cultural Institutions Group | 1877-1945: The original partnerships
The gold was transferred to the treasury in Philadelphia and was reminted into $508,318.46. The final funds from Smithson were received in 1864 from Marie de la Batut, Smithson's nephew's mother. This final amount totalled $54,165.38. On 24 February 1847 the Board of Regents, which oversaw the creation of the Smithsonian, approved the seal for the institution. The seal, based on an engraving by Pierre Joseph Tiolier, was manufactured by Edward Stabler and designed by Robert Dale Owen. Although Smithson's papers and collection of minerals were destroyed in a fire in 1865, his collection of 213 books remains intact at the Smithsonian.
James Smithson | Legacy and the Smithsonian
The Smithsonian Institution is an alternate history novel by Gore Vidal, first published in 1998. The novel is a fictional account of the adventures of "T." as he helps a group of scientists in the basement of the Smithsonian create the neutron bomb, and encounters historical figures such as President Abraham Lincoln, Charles Lindbergh, Eleanor Roosevelt and Mrs. Grover Cleveland.
The Smithsonian Institution (novel) | Introduction
The museum was founded in 1873 as the Cape Ann Scientific and Literary Association. The present name was adopted in 2007.
Cape Ann Museum | History
The Smithsonian's Board of Regents established the Conservation Research Laboratory of the United States National Museum in 1963 in response to a growing need to support conservation of the entire Institution's collections. In 1965 the name of the laboratory was changed to the Conservation Analytical Laboratory (CAL). In 1983, the laboratory moved to the Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland. Congress mandated a national conservation training program among other wider responsibilities including an expanded conservation science research program. The Board of Regents approved a name change to the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education (SCMRE) in 1998. SCMRE's mission was to serve all museum communities - national and international, and provide professional training and education programs.
Museum Conservation Institute | History
A third major donation arrived fifteen years later, when philosopher-bishop George Berkeley donated his 1,000-volume,a major assembly of classical works library to the school. Now holding a sizeable collection, Yale President Thomas Clap decided to catalogue the collection for the first time, then housed in the college's only building, the College House.
Yale University Library | Establishment (1650–1786)
In its early years, the Library expanded its collection mostly through such gifts as the John C. Jay conchological library, the Carson Brevoort library on fishes and general zoology, the ornithological library of Daniel Giraud Elliot, the Harry Edwards entomological library, the Hugh Jewett collection of voyages and travel and the Jules Marcou geology collection. In 1903 the American Ethnological Society deposited its library in the museum and in 1905 the New York Academy of Sciences followed suit by transferring its collection of 10,000 volumes. Today, the Library's collections contain over 550,000 volumes of monographs, serials, pamphlets, reprints, microforms, and original illustrations, as well as film, photographic, archives and manuscripts, fine art, memorabilia and rare book collections.
American Museum of Natural History | History
The three foundation collections are those which were brought together to form the initial manuscript holdings of the British Museum in 1753:
British Library | Foundation collections
The Museum of Comparative Zoology was founded in 1859 through the efforts of zoologist Louis Agassiz, and the museum used to be referred to as "The Agassiz" after its founder. Agassiz designed the collection to illustrate the variety and comparative relationships of animal life. The Radcliffe Zoological Laboratory was created in 1894 when Radcliffe College rented a space on the fifth floor of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University to convert into a women's laboratory. Prior to this acquisition, Radcliffe science laboratories were taught using inadequate facilities, converting spaces such as bathrooms in old houses into physics laboratories, which Harvard professors often refused to teach in.
Museum of Comparative Zoology | History
The National Postal Museum, located opposite Union Station in Washington, D.C., United States, was established through joint agreement between the United States Postal Service and the Smithsonian Institution and opened in 1993.
National Postal Museum | Introduction
In 1850, Baird became the first curator at the Smithsonian Institution and the Permanent Secretary for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the latter which he served for three years. Upon his arrival in Washington, he brought two railroad box cars worth of his personal collection. Baird would create a museum program for the Smithstonian, requesting that the organization focus on natural history in the United States. His program also allowed him to create a network of collectors through an exchange system. He would ask that members of the Army and Navy collect rare animals and plant specimens from west of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.
Spencer Fullerton Baird | Starting at the Smithsonian
Already at its founding, the Field Museum had a large anthropological collection. A large number of the early natural history specimens were purchased from Ward’s Natural History Establishment in Rochester, New York. An extensive acquisition program, including large expeditions conducted by the museum’s curatorial staff resulted in substantial collection growth. During the first 50 years of the museum’s existence, over 440 Field Museum expeditions acquired specimens from all parts of the world. In addition, material was added through purchase, such as H. N. Patterson's herbarium in 1900, and the Strecker butterfly collection in 1908. Extensive specimen material and artifacts were given to the museum by collectors and donors, such as the Boone collection of over 3,500 East Asian artifacts, consisting of books, prints and various objects.
Field Museum of Natural History | Scientific collections
The museum was established as a gift from George Peabody, a native of South Danvers (now eponymously named Peabody), a wealthy American financier and philanthropist on October 8, 1866. Peabody committed $150,000 to be used, according to the terms of the trust, to establish the position of Peabody Professor-Curator, to purchase artifacts, and to construct a building to house its collections. Peabody directed his trustees to organize the construction of "a suitable fireproof museum building, upon land to be given for that purpose, free of cost or rental, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College." The museum opened its first exhibition consisting of a small number of prehistoric artifacts from the Merrimack Valley in Harvard University's Boylston Hall in 1867.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology | History
In 1982, Arthur M. Sackler donated around 1,000 Asian artworks and objects to the Smithsonian Institution. The collection was valued at $50 million. Along with the object donation, Sackler also provided $4 million to build a facility to house the objects, thus founding the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The quadrangle construction began on June 22, 1982. An additional $36.5 million was appropriated to continue the project in October. Groundbreaking took place on June 21, 1983 with participation by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, then Vice President George H. W. Bush and Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley. On February 21, 1984, Milo C.
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery | History
The collection was further expanded by its next curator, Dr. Joseph Leidy, who added animal specimens, fossils and anthropological samples. By the late 1880s, the collection was beginning to show signs of neglect and wear, compounded by a fire in Logan Hall, the University of Pennsylvania building that housed the museum.
Wistar Institute | Beginnings
In 1964, CVPS proposed razing the building, prompting Smithsonian curator and Windsor resident, Edwin A. Battison to formulate plans for the creation of a museum. Battison had a relationship with CVPS, storing various items in the building since the 1950s. Windsor native Battison founded the American Precision Museum in 1966 and served as its director until 1991. Battison, a curator of Mechanical Engineering at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution, secured the Robbins & Lawrence Armory to house the museum and the collection of historic machine tools, related books, and archival materials he had collected during his lifetime.
American Precision Museum | The Museum: 1966 - Present
The museum was founded in 1966 and is administered as an incorporated foundation of . In 2000, , a branch of the museum, opened in , in .
Idemitsu Museum of Arts | History