The Smithsonian - just the facts

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational & research institute & associated museum complex, administered & funded by the government of the United States & by funds from its endowment, contributions, & profits from its shops & its magazine. Most of its facilities are located in Washington, D.C., but its 19 museums, zoo, & eight research centers include sites in New York City, Virginia, Panama, & elsewhere. It has over 142 million items in its collections.

A monthly magazine published by the Smithsonian Institution is also named the Smithsonian.

Smithsonian Networks is a new multiplatform network that uses Smithsonian archives & resources to create original HD programming.

History
The Smithsonian Institution was founded for the "increase & diffusion" of knowledge by a bequest to the United States by the British scientist James Smithson (1765–1829), who had never visited the United States himself. In Smithson's will, he stated that should his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, die without heirs, the Smithson estate would go to the United States of America for creating an "Establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men". After the nephew died without heirs in 1835, President Andrew Jackson informed Congress of the bequest, which amounted to 104,960 gold sovereigns, or $500,000 U.S. dollars ($9,235,277 in 2005 U.S. dollars after inflation).

Act of Congress: Eight years later, Congress passed an act establishing the Smithsonian Institution, a hybrid public/private partnership, & the act was signed into law on August 10, 1846 by James Polk. (See 20 U.S.C. § 41 (Ch. 178, Sec. 1, 9 Stat. 102).) The bill was drafted by Indiana Democratic Congressman Robert Dale Owen, a Socialist & son of Robert Owen, the father of the cooperative movement.

The crenellated architecture of the Smithsonian Institution Building on the National Mall has made it known informally as "The Castle". It was built by architect James Renwick, Jr. & completed in 1855. Many of the other buildings are historical & architectural landmarks. Detroit philanthropist Charles Lang Freer's donation of his private collection for Freer Gallery, & funds to build the museum, was among the Smithsonian's first major donations from a private individual.

Though the Smithsonian's first secretary, Joseph Henry, wanted the Institution to be a center for scientific research, before long it became the depository for various Washington & U.S. government collections.

The United States Exploring Expedition amassed thousands of animal specimens, an herbarium of 50,000 examples, shells & minerals, tropical birds, jars of seawater & ethnographic specimens from the South Pacific. These specimens & artifacts became part of the Smithsonian collections, as did those collected by the military & civilian surveys in the American West, such as the Mexican Boundary Survey & Pacific Railroad Surveys, which assembled many Native American artifacts as well as natural history specimens.

The Institution became a magnet for natural scientists from 1857 to 1866, who formed a group called the Megatherium Club.

The asteroid 3773 Smithsonian is named in honor of the Institution.

Administration

The Smithsonian Institution is established as a trust instrumentality by act of Congress, & it is functionally & legally a body of the federal government. More than two-thirds of the Smithsonian's workforce of some 6,300 persons are employees of the federal government. The Smithsonian is represented by attorneys from the United States Department of Justice in litigation, & money judgments against the Smithsonian are also paid out of the federal treasury.

The nominal head of the Institution is the Chancellor, an office which has always been held by the current Chief Justice of the United States. The affairs of the Smithsonian are conducted by its 17-member board of regents, eight members of which constitute a quorum for the conduct of business. Eight of the regents are United States officials: the Vice President (one of his few official legal duties) & the Chief Justice of the United States, three United States Senators appointed by the Vice President in his capacity as President of the Senate, & three Members of the U.S. House of Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House. The remaining nine regents are "persons other than Members of Congress," who are appointed by joint resolution of Congress. Regents are allowed reimbursement for their expenses in connection with attendance at meetings, but their service as regents is uncompensated. The day-to-day operations of the Smithsonian are supervised by a salaried "Secretary" chosen by the board of regents.

Secretaries of the Smithsonian
Joseph Henry, 1846–1878
Spencer Fullerton Baird, 1878–1887
Samuel Pierpont Langley, 1887–1906
Charles Doolittle Walcott, 1907–1927
Charles Greeley Abbot, 1928–1944
Alexander Wetmore, 1944–1952
Leonard Carmichael, 1953–1964
Sidney Dillon Ripley, 1964–1984
Robert McCormick Adams, 1984–1994
Ira Michael Heyman, 1994–1999
Lawrence M. Small, 2000–2007
Cristián Samper (Acting Secretary), 2007–
Cristián Samper is the first Latin American to hold the position. Born in Costa Rica, he was raised in Colombia from the age of one. He received his Bachelor's degree in Biology from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá & his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is one of the founders of the Von Humboldt Institute in Colombia, & since 2003 has been the director of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Smithsonian museums

Washington, DC
Anacostia Museum & Center for African American History & Culture
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Arts & Industries Building
Freer Gallery of Art
Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden
National Air & Space Museum
National Museum of African American History & Culture (not yet built)
National Museum of African Art
National Museum of American History
National Museum of the American Indian (Mall museum)
National Museum of Natural History
National Portrait Gallery
National Postal Museum
S. Dillon Ripley Center
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian Institution Building
Smithsonian National Zoological Park (National Zoo)
The National Gallery of Art is affiliated with the Smithsonian, but it is run by a separate charter.

New York, NY
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
National Museum of the American Indian's George Gustav Heye Center

Chantilly, VA
National Air & Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Seattle, WA
Wing Luke Asian Museum (Smithsonian affiliate)

Bozeman, MT
Museum of the Rockies (Smithsonian Affiliate)
In addition, there are many museums that are Smithsonian affiliates.

Smithsonian research centers
The following is a list of Smithsonian research centers, with their affiliated museum in parentheses.

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory & the associated Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Carrie Bow Marine Field Station (Natural History Museum)
Center For Earth & Planetary Studies (Air & Space Museum)
Conservation & Research Center (National Zoo)
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Marine Station at Fort Pierce (Natural History Museum)
Migratory Bird Center (National Zoo)
Museum Conservation Institute
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

In popular culture
The Smithsonian is continuously featured in the television show " Bones ". It is the basis of the show's Jeffersonian Institute.

It is also mentioned in the eighth Star Trek movie, Star Trek: First Contact, where Captain Jean-Luc Picard says he has seen the Phoenix, humanity's first faster-than-light spaceship, in the Smithsonian (the institution presumably having survived to the twenty-fourth century).

Criticism
The Smithsonian Institution has been criticised for strong copyright restrictions imposed on its image collections which overwhelmingly consist of public domain content dating to the 19th century. An image without a Smithsonian watermark & at a resolution suitable for publication requires an expensive licensing fee, manual approval by the Smithsonian staff, & the restriction of any further use without permission. This conflicts with the institution's own policy in a 2005 memo, in which it asserted, "The Smithsonian cannot own copyright in works prepared by Smithsonian employees paid from federal funds", as well as the institution's own charter by the U.S. Congress to "increase & diffuse knowledge."

The Smithsonian Institution has also been critcised for self-censorship of a climate change exhibit. Smithsonian scholars watered down a report about climate change, believing it would upset the Congress & the Bush White House.

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