Qualla: Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smithsonian Institution, Public domain. James Smithson was born around 1765, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland, and grew up in France because England wanted him as far from his father's family as possible. He became a chemist. He never married, never had children, and never visited America. When his nephew died childless in 1835, Smithson's will took effect: most of his wealth was to pass 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. Nobody in Washington knew quite what to do with this gift. Eight years of congressional argument followed about whether to use it for a university, a national observatory, an agricultural experiment station, or something else. On August 10, 1846, President James K. Polk signed the legislation that resolved the question. Today the institution that nobody quite knew how to start has 21 museums, 21 libraries, 14 research centers, a zoo, and more than 157 million objects in its holdings.

Read more: Smithsonian Institution on Qualla

Image: Smithsonian Institution | Public domain

Smithsonian Institution: The Bequest

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Bjorgen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Smithson's reasons remain partly mysterious. His will makes no argument for why the United States should inherit his money, and his surviving correspondence offers only vague suggestions about Enlightenment universalism and his admiration for the young republic. Smithson died in ...

Read more: Smithsonian Institution on Qualla

Image: David Bjorgen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Smithsonian Institution: The Castle and What Came After

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Northern-Virginia-Photographer, CC0. Construction on the Smithsonian Institution Building began in 1847. The architect was James Renwick Jr., already known for Grace Church in New York, and his design - red sandstone, asymmetrical massing, towers in a sort of Norman-Romanesque revival - looked nothing like the white...

Read more: Smithsonian Institution on Qualla

Image: Northern-Virginia-Photographer | CC0

Smithsonian Institution: The Eleven on the Mall

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ryan Somma, CC BY-SA 2.0. Eleven Smithsonian museums today line the National Mall between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial - more museums per linear mile than anywhere else in the world. The National Air and Space Museum, the largest by floor space, opened on July 1, 1976 with the Wright brothers' Fly...

Read more: Smithsonian Institution on Qualla

Image: Ryan Somma | CC BY-SA 2.0

Smithsonian Institution: Off the Mall

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fred Cochard, CC0. The Smithsonian extends well beyond the Mall. The National Zoological Park in Rock Creek Park, designed in part by Frederick Law Olmsted, opened in 1889 and has hosted giant pandas as guests of the People's Republic of China since 1972, with the latest pair - Bao Li and Qing Bao ...

Read more: Smithsonian Institution on Qualla

Image: Fred Cochard | CC0

Smithsonian Institution: 157 Million Things

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tim from Washington, D.C., United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0. Nearly all of the Smithsonian's roughly 30 million annual visitors enter without paying. The institution's $1.25 billion annual budget comes about two-thirds from federal appropriations; the rest from its endowment, private donations, retail and licensing, and a Showtime Channel ...

Read more: Smithsonian Institution on Qualla

Image: Tim from Washington, D.C., United States of America | CC BY-SA 2.0