The Smithsonian Celebrates its 165th Birthday: Big Pic

Aug. 10, 2011 -- What are these American bison (also known as American buffalo) doing on the lawn of one of the most famous American institutions? Before there was the Smithsonian National Zoo, "living animal collections" grazed on the lawn of the Smithsonian Institution Building, a stone's throw from the White House and the Nation's Capitol.

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Lucky for the bison, and perhaps also for today's tourists to Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Institution built a zoo, along with 18 other complexes, to promote science, art and natural history and house more than 137 million artifacts – including bison. And it all began 165 years ago today, Aug. 10, 1846, when the institution got its official start.

The world's largest museum complex, the Smithsonian Institution had its humble beginnings in the heart and mind -- and ultimately, the death -- of an illegitimate son of English nobility.

James Lewis Macie, born in 1765, was the son of a Duke, Hugh Smithson, and widowed English royalty, Elizabeth Keate Hungerford Macie. After his mother's death, he took his father's surname: Smithson.

A scientist by trade and at heart, Smithson published 27 papers throughout his life -- on chemistry, geology and mineralogy -- in various scientific journals. His choice of topics included everything from the chemical compounds in a lady's teardrop to an improved method of brewing coffee. He was most famous for overturning popular scientific opinion by proving that zinc carbonates were true carbonate minerals, not zinc oxides.

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But what mark his papers didn't leave on the world, his final request did. Smithson died in Italy on June 27, 1829, at the age of 64. He left all of his estate and belongings to his nephew -- with one provision that would change the course of American history. If his nephew died without any heirs, the inheritance would go 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 ... ."

Needless to say, Smithson's nephew left no heirs. But the United Sates didn't just inherit a sum of $508,813. It inherited a full-on political debate about accepting gifts from foreigners. Several senators made claims against the practice, afraid it would set a precedent of people being able to "purchase" their namesakes on national institutions.

President Andrew Jackson ultimately laid the groundwork for the young nation to accept the posthumous gift. But it would take several more years of legal battles in England before the money would make it back the U.S.

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Add to that a long and varied debate on exactly what the "Institution" should be -- everything from a teachers' training school to a traditional university was considered -- and it wasn't until Aug. 10, 1846 that the Smithsonian Institution truly had legs.

President James K. Polk eventually signed the legislation that would make way for the world's largest museum complex.

Today, the Smithsonian Institution comprises 19 museums and galleries and the National Zoological Park, as well as research facilities, with a budget of more than $750 million. Last year alone, more than 30 million people visited a Smithsonian museum, gallery or zoo -- all of which have free admission.

To this day no one knows why Smithson felt compelled to leave his worldly possessions to science -- and particularly the science of the United States, a country he had no affiliation with. Regardless of his motivation, the end result and impact is undeniable -- even on the buffaloes.

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