The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian (review)

Ever since his bequest to the United States, and the later destruction of his papers and mineral collection by fire in 1865, James Smithson has been perceived as a somewhat elusive and enigmatic figure. Heather Ewing makes no claim that her study solves the many questions surrounding Smithson's life and the provisions of his will. What she has achieved through meticulous and imaginative research is a much fuller picture of Smithson than had ever been thought possible. She has traced and recovered much of his world—searching in libraries and archives, in public, legal, and bank records, and in private collections throughout America, Britain, and Europe. New evidence and new perspectives are revealed. Smithson's mother emerges as a more substantial figure, volatile and increasingly litigious, and the source of his fortune is shown to be his own astute financial dealings rather than his inheritance.

Central to Ewing's analysis is what she describes as the lifelong "tension between his scientific ambitions and his aristocratic aspirations" (p. 133). For his first thirty-five years Smithson bore the name of Macie from his mother's first husband. In 1830, following his mother's death, he successfully petitioned Parliament to change his name to Smithson—that of his natural father, Sir Hugh Smithson, before the latter's ennoblement as the first duke of Northumberland. By this time, James Smithson had established his scientific reputation. At Oxford he had developed a lifelong passion for the emerging sciences of chemistry and mineralogy. In 1784 he took part in a geological expedition to Fingal's Cave in the Hebridean island of Staffa, acquiring his first taste for scientific exploration. He gravitated to London, with its plethora of scientific coteries, clubs, and societies, and in 1787, at the age of twenty-two, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society. The following year he set out for the Continent, with a letter of introduction from Sir Joseph Banks to Antoine Lavoisier.

Throughout the 1790s Smithson traveled extensively in Europe, finding the savant and social life of Florence particularly congenial and visiting the site of the famous Siena meteorite fall of 1794. Back in London, he became a regular visitor to the Holland House circle. From this time on, Smithson lived an itinerant existence. Returning to Europe, he was suspected of spying by the French (the police files relating to this are one of Ewing's most spectacular finds) and was twice incarcerated as a prisoner of war. After a period in London, 1810–14, he mainly resided abroad until his death in Genoa in 1829. At some point he had a falling-out with the Royal Society (the reasons are still obscure). It is from this period that his reputation as an eccentric and a recluse arises. Reports speak of his ill health, gambling, and capricious behavior, but Ewing makes clear that his scientific work continued, with seventeen of his twenty-seven published papers dating from these later years.

Ewing acknowledges that while Smithson's reputation among his peers in Britain and on the Continent was considerable, his scientific practice, based largely on micro-chemical experiments, was superseded by the growing professionalization of science in the nineteenth century.

What do we learn regarding Smithson's bequest to a country he had never visited? Ewing addresses this question with a robust rejoinder: "For someone like Smithson . . . America was not a remote and foreign land" (p. 200). Smithson moved in progressive circles sympathetic to the new American republic, which represented a set of ideals and expectations. The famous terms of the bequest, "an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men," reflect not only Enlightenment aspirations but the importance of founding institutions dedicated to their realization. In London and on his travels, Smithson came in contact with a growing number of bodies dedicated to the discussion and presentation of scientific ideas and inventions...