The Lost World of James Smithson

The Lost World of James Smithson
Author: Heather Ewing
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 577
Release: 2010-12-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1408820757

In 1836 the United States government received a strange and unprecedented gift - a bequest of 104,960 gold sovereigns (then worth half a million dollars) to establish a foundation in Washington 'for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men'. The Smithsonian Institution, as it would eventually be called, grew into the largest museum and research complex in the world. Yet it owes its existence to an Englishman who never set foot in the United States, and who has remained a shadowy figure for more than a hundred and fifty years. Smithson lived a restless life in the capitals of Europe during the turbulent years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars; at one time he was trailed by the French secret police, and later languished as a prisoner of war in Denmark for four long years. Yet despite a certain a penchant for gambling and fine living, he had, by the time of his death in Paris in 1829, amassed a financial fortune and a wealth of scientific papers that he left to the new democracy America. Spurned by his natural father and his country, he would be acknowledged for his own achievements in the New World. Drawing on unpublished diaries and letters from archives all over Europe and the United States, Heather Ewing tells the full and compelling story for the first time, revealing a life lived at the heart of the English Enlightenment and illuminating the mind that sparked the creation of America's greatest museum.

PAPERS OF JOSEPH HENRY V8

PAPERS OF JOSEPH HENRY V8
Author: Joseph Henry
Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
Total Pages: 616
Release: 1999-01-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

This volume provides a fascinating view of an increasingly confident public figure who worked unstintingly to gain international acknowledgement of American scientific achievement but also popular support for research in a wide array of disciplines.

Exchanging Objects

Exchanging Objects
Author: Catherine A. Nichols
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2021-04-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1800730535

As an historical account of the exchange of “duplicate specimens” between anthropologists at the Smithsonian Institution and museums, collectors, and schools around the world in the late nineteenth century, this book reveals connections between both well-known museums and little-known local institutions, created through the exchange of museum objects. It explores how anthropologists categorized some objects in their collections as “duplicate specimens,” making them potential candidates for exchange. This historical form of what museum professionals would now call deaccessioning considers the intellectual and technical requirement of classifying objects in museums, and suggests that a deeper understanding of past museum practice can inform mission-driven contemporary museum work.

Power Struggles

Power Struggles
Author: Michael B. Schiffer
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2008
Genre: Electric engineering
ISBN: 0262195828

Laying the foundation for Thomas Edison, the first electric generators were built in the 1830s, the earliest commercial lighting systems before 1860, and the first commercial application of generator-powered light in the early 1860s. This book examines some of these early applications of electricity.

Science Museums in Transition

Science Museums in Transition
Author: Carin Berkowitz
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2017-07-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0822982757

The nineteenth century witnessed a dramatic shift in the display and dissemination of natural knowledge across Britain and America, from private collections of miscellaneous artifacts and objects to public exhibitions and state-sponsored museums. The science museum as we know it—an institution of expert knowledge built to inform a lay public—was still very much in formation during this dynamic period. Science Museums in Transition provides a nuanced, comparative study of the diverse places and spaces in which science was displayed at a time when science and spectacle were still deeply intertwined; when leading naturalists, curators, and popular showmen were debating both how to display their knowledge and how and whether they should profit from scientific work; and when ideals of nationalism, class politics, and democracy were permeating the museum's walls. Contributors examine a constellation of people, spaces, display practices, experiences, and politics that worked not only to define the museum, but to shape public science and scientific knowledge. Taken together, the chapters in this volume span the Atlantic, exploring private and public museums, short and long-term exhibitions, and museums built for entertainment, education, and research, and in turn raise a host of important questions, about expertise, and about who speaks for nature and for history.