James Smithson

James Smithson (born 1765, Paris, France—died June 27, 1829, Genoa [Italy]) was an English scientist who provided funds for the founding of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Smithson was born to Hugh Smithson Percy, 1st duke of Northumberland, and Elizabeth Keate Macie, a lineal descendant of Henry VII. Educated at the University of Oxford, Smithson was said to have been the best chemist and mineralogist in his class; he eventually published 27 scientific papers. On the recommendation of Henry Cavendish, who was one of the greatest scientists of his time, and others, he was admitted to the Royal Society at the age of 22. The mineral smithsonite (carbonate of zinc) was named for him.

Smithson, who never married, spent much of his life in Europe, where he came to know the leading scientists. His substantial fortune, inherited chiefly through his mother’s family, he left to a nephew, Henry James Hungerford, who died without children. Under terms of Smithson’s will, the whole estate went “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….”

Some of his reasons for making his bequest to the United States—which he never visited—seem related to his resentment over the circumstances of his birth out of wedlock. He had once written, “My name shall live in the memory of man when the titles of the Northumberlands and Percys are extinct and forgotten.” He has also been credited with enthusiasm for the United States as a place that promised more equality and freedom than he found in Europe.

In 1904 Smithson’s remains were transported to the United States under an escort that included Alexander Graham Bell and were interred in the original Smithsonian building.