The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Posted On December 3, 2009
The Smithsonian Institution is one of the most important educational as well as research institute. It is also a museum complex, which is administered as well as funded by the government of the United States. The funds are collected from its donation, charity, and earnings from its shops and also its magazines. Almost all of its amenities are located in Washington, D.C., but its 19 museums, nine research centers and the zoos are part of the sites in New York City, Panama, and Virginia. The museum has a collection of over 136 million items in its exhibits. The museum publishes two different magazines which are called Smithsonian which is a monthly magazine and the other is Air & Space which is a bimonthly magazine. The Smithsonian Police are employed to look after the protection of the staff, tourists and also the belongings of the museums. The current logo of the museum is a stylized sun.
The Smithsonian Institution was founded by James Smithson (1765–1829) and he donated it to United States with the sole reason of “increase and diffusion” in the country. James Smithson was a British scientist. Personally he has never visited the United States. In Smithson’s will, he confirmed that after the death of his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, and there are no beneficiaries then the entire Smithson estate should be given to the government of the United States for generating an “Establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men”. In 1835 his nephew, Henry James Hungerford died without any heirs and later the Congress President Andrew Jackson accepted the legacy and gave the responsibility of the institute to the charitable trust on 1 July 1836.
The crenellated architecture on the National Mall of the Smithsonian Institution Building has given it an informal name as “The Castle”. Architect James Renwick, Jr. had constructed the institute which was completed by the year 1855. Many of the other different buildings in the institute are architectural as well as historical landmarks.
Detroit philanthropist Charles Lang Freer was the first major individual donor for the museum. He made the donation for his personal collections which were going to be the part of the Freer Gallery.
Joseph Henry, who was Smithsonian’s first secretary, wanted the establishment to be a hub for scientific research, before protracted it became the reservoir for various U.S. and Washington government gathering.
The United States discover journey which was circumnavigated U.S. Navy across the globe during the 1838 and 1842. The cruise collected a number of different animal specimens, also a herbarium which has a collection of 50,000 examples, which mostly consists of the variety of shells as well as the minerals, jars of seawater, ethnographic specimens from the South Pacific as well as tropical birds. These artifacts and the specimens were made an element of the Smithsonian collections, also those specimens which were collected by numerous civilian and the military surveys of the American West, which includes the Mexican Boundary Survey as well as the Pacific Railroad Surveys, which brought together various Native American natural history specimens and the numerous artifacts.
The Institution did become a major attraction for almost all the natural scientists during the year 1857 to 1866. All the natural scientists which were associated with the museum formed a group which was named as the Megatherium Club.
The asteroid 3773 Smithsonian which was discovered in the year 1984 was named after this Institution. A 2009 motion picture, called Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian was permitted to use the name of Smithsonian Institution’s for the very first time in the history of the Institute.
The Smithsonian Institution was been established as a trust according to the act of Congress. It is a legal as well as a functional body and it belongs to the federal government. Around two-thirds of the people that are around 6,300 persons working for the Smithsonian’s Institute are the workers of the federal government. The Smithsonian Institutes has been symbolized by attorneys from the United States Department of Justice in proceedings, and wealth judgments against the Smithsonian are also compensated out of the federal treasury.
The Smithsonia Institute is open seven days a week from nine in the morning to six in the evening. There are no entrance fees as such for the children as well as the adults.
Washington Dulles International Airport - IAD is the nearest located airport to the Smithsonia Institute. You can use various transportation services such as buses, taxis as well as cars. The guided tours are easily available. The food and accommodation is easily available in the city.
