The Founding of the Smithsonian: Catalogue Card No. 1 of the Scientific Collection of the Benefactor of the Smithsonian Institution, in His Own Hand

Almost certainly the only handwritten inventory from Smithson’s own collection in private hands; From the collection of, and notated by the Chief Clerk and Chief Archivist of the Smithsonian throughout the Victorian era

James Smithson, the great benefactor of America, was born in 1754, the illegitimate son of Hugh Smithson, the first Duke of Northumberland. Illegitimate children were not unusual among England’s 18th century nobility, but certain opportunities were closed to them; they could not become military officers or ministers of the Church of England, two careers aristocrats commonly pursued. However, the young man attended Pembroke College at Oxford University, and there became interested in the natural sciences. He became a mineralogist and chemist.

“Catalogue of my Cabinet”

In the mineralogy field, he spent many years traveling the world to obtain samples of minerals and meteorites, study the geography he traversed, and describe the mining and manufacturing processes he encountered. He gathered many of these samples into a collection he kept in a mahogany cabinet, carefully notating the items and their histories on small catalogue cards. The book The Lost World of James Smithson affirms that Smithson maintained a comprehensive mineral cabinet “of the crystalized produce of the earth”, and emphasizes the great importance this cabinet held for him. In the chemistry field, much of Smithson’s work was dedicated to studying the chemical composition of various compounds. He investigated improved methods for making coffee and tea, wrote a paper on “Some improvements of lamps,” and was said to have once held a small container to a woman’s face in order to capture her tear, take it to his study, and analyze it.

His methods were scrupulously careful, and he saw the importance of detailed work even on modest scientific investigations. At the end of a paper on the element fluorine, for instance, he wrote “there may be persons who, measuring the importance of the subject by the magnitude of the object, will cast a supercilious look on this discussion; but the particle and the planet are subject to the same laws, and what is learned of the one will be known of the other.” He repeatedly advocated the publication of even small advances, rather than withholding them on the assumption that they were insufficiently important.

If as a youth Smithson set out to establish his name respectably, he certainly succeeded, as his research, publications, and activities in science opened doors for him, and quickly gained him the regard of his peers. He was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society in London, a signal honor that made him part of the scientific elite. Meanwhile, Smithson inherited a substantial amount of land from his mother, and careful management of it brought him wealth. This enabled him to live finely on the Continent as well as England; he spent some time living in Paris.

Smithson never married and had only one close relative, a nephew named Henry James Dickinson (who later changed his name to Hungerford). In his will, Smithson left his fortune of £100,000 to his nephew. In the event of Hungerford’s death, Smithson stipulated, the estate would pass his children – legitimate or illegitimate. But if his nephew died childless, he did “bequeath the whole of my property…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.”

Why America remains a mystery. Smithson was born around 1765 in Paris, and despite his world travels, he had never once visited the United States. He is not known to have been in regular communication with any Americans, and his papers – other than his will – never mention the United States. Smithson’s motivations for choosing to deed his estate to the citizens of a nation to which he seemingly had no connection may never be satisfactorily answered. Heather Ewing, Smithson’s biographer, suggests that his donation reflected the late-18th century’s interest in a “culture of improvement,” and a widespread belief that the United States would play an important role in advancing the arts and sciences. A handwritten note later discovered among Smithson’s papers suggests his decision was part of his search for legitimacy, perhaps even immortality. “The best blood of England flows in my veins,” Smithson lamented, “but this avails me not. My name shall live in the memory of man when the titles of the Northumberlands and the Percys are extinct and forgotten.”

In 1829 Smithson died in Genoa, Italy. In 1835 Smithson’s nephew died childless, and Smithson’s lawyers informed American diplomats of the bequest. The gift was quite large for the time, almost equal to Harvard’s entire endowment, which was then $600,000. Surprisingly to us today, the bequest flummoxed the government of the United States. President Andrew Jackson was unsure of the constitutional propriety of accepting the gift, and turned the matter over to Congress. Former President John Quincy Adams, then a Representative from Massachusetts, championed the gift as being consonant with “the spirit of the age.” However, Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina vigorously disagreed, proclaiming it “beneath the dignity of the United States to receive gifts of this kind from anyone.” He also worried about overstepping and the Federal government exercising too much power, saying “We would enlarge our grant of power derived from the States of this Union.” The debate went on for eight years. But meanwhile, in July 1836, Congress at least agreed to send former Attorney General Richard Rush as envoy to London to secure the funds.

Rush spent nearly two years at the Court of Chancery, arguing for the validity of the will and pledging “the faith of the United States” that the institution would indeed be built. He had to overcome formidable obstacles, as the British Crown initially sought to void the bequest and keep the money in England. Even a more formidable attack on the bequest came in the form of a lawsuit filed by Hungerford’s mother, Mrs. de la Batut, who made a claim against the estate. After long negotiations, it was agreed that she would receive a payment of £526 immediately and thereafter receive an annual annuity of £150 for her life. In May 1838, the court entered the settlement and awarded the bequest to the United States, retaining about £5000 from the Smithson estate to cover the expense of payments to Mrs. de la Batut. These retained funds were known as Smithson’s residuary legacy, and it would fall to President Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, to collect these residuary funds and bring them to the United States.

Rush quickly converted the estate into coin, ending up with 11 boxes of gold sovereigns. He returned to Philadelphia and personally handed the funds over to the U.S. Mint. The coins were re-cast into $508,318.46 worth of hard currency – a sum roughly equivalent to 1/66 of the entire federal budget. According to the book James Smithson and His Bequest, by William Jones Rhees, and published in 1880, in addition to the cash Rush also brought back some of Smithson’s possessions. These Rush enumerated, and they included: “…a box containing sundry specimens of minerals…a box of minerals…a mahogany cabinet…two large boxes filled with specimens of minerals and manuscript treatises, apparently in the testator’s handwriting…” Thus he brought  Smithson’s personal mineral collection and the cabinet in which they were housed. There were also his note cards cataloging the items in the cabinet, and commenting on each. A mineralogist who saw the collection wrote to the American Philosophical Society in 1841 “that among the valuable things contained in the Smithson boxes were found a superb collection, and very large, precious stones and exquisite crystalized minerals, forming, as far as I judge, decidedly the richest and rarest collection in this country.” Almost all of this collection, with its cabinet and manuscripts, was lost in a fire in 1865. A handful of Smithson’s manuscripts escaped the fire, some of which consisted of the note cards of his personal collection.

In 1846, after nearly a decade of wrangling, Congress formally established the Smithsonian Institution.

William Jones Rhees was Chief Clerk of the Smithsonian from 1852 until the early 1890s, and also served as archivist and editor almost until his death in 1907. In addition to his responsibility for the Institution’s records, Rhees was in charge of publications. Moreover, in his personal life he was an avid autograph and manuscript collector. Some of Rhees’s autograph collection was donated to a New Jersey institution, which has just deaccessioned it. It contains:

1. Smithson’s calling card, reading “Mr Smithson, Rue Montmartre No. 121.” This is the very card William Jones Rhees illustrated in his book James Smithson and His Bequest. On the verso Rhees has written, “One of the original genuine cards of James Smithson. W.J. Rhees”;

2. Smithson’s dinner invitation card, reading “Mr. Smithson begs the honor of _____ Company at Dinner ___ the ___. The favor of an Answer is desired.” This is the very card William Jones Rhees illustrated in his book James Smithson and His Bequest;

3. Card no. 1 of the catalogue of Smithton’s collection, the one he kept in the mahogany cabinet, as it stood in 1820, carefully notating the items and their histories. It is on two sides of the same card. Some scientific symbols are used throughout. At the top of the recto Smithson has written: “Catalogue of my Cabinet: 1820”. The inventory reads: “No. 1. Pyrites said to contain gold from Krefeld – Stockhausen No. (Stockhausen apparently issued catalogues, and Smithson purchased from these). The matrix… laid in water on silver colored it black. This… put into [chemical symbol] effervesced & afforded of crystals of Barium Chloride in minute plates.

“2. Green micaceous stone from Switzerland. By ignition it undergoes little change at the edges…  May be talc.  Crystalline vein …  found to be [scientific abbreviation].

“3. Minute prismatic green… the millstone from Klauster Laaker near Andernack. I collected them there in 18….

“4. Eaglestone of bog iron ore from Hamburg in Hesse. Stockhausen catalogue no. 1920.

“5. A semi-ball of yellow [sulphur iron] from where is not known.” On the verso the catalogue continues,

“6. Smalt, on glass colored blue by [Chemical symbol]. Reichelsdorf. Stockhausen catalogue no. 1873.

“7. Stalactite of probably hydrate of iron from Hesse. It affords a yellow streak. I bought it of Klinglender.

“8. Bluish porcelain… from…  Hesse. Stockhausen latal. 187. Melts slightly.”

Below this Rhees has written: “This is the autograph of James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution. W.J. Rhees, Chief Clerk, S.I., Washington,
D.C.”

The Smithsonian Institution has some of these cards, and perhaps a few may be in other institutions. They are among the handful of pieces in Smithson’s hand known to exist and that escaped the firm.  It is almost certainly the only one in private hands, as we have been unable to find record of any except this one, itself deaccessioned from an institution.