24 



The Smithsonian Institution 



United States of America be faithfully executed, ... let the 

 result accomplish his object, the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men, and a wreath more unfading shall en- 

 twine itself, in the lapse of future ages, around the name of 

 Smithson than the united hands of history and poetry have 

 braided around the name of Percy through the long ages 

 past." 



The principal sources of information for 

 this chapter have been as follows : 



1. Gentlematis Magazine for March, 1830, 

 page 275. 



2. The documentary evidence which, 

 though meager, may be found in the report 

 of Richard Rush to the Department of State, 

 in 1838. 



3. The manuscripts and diary of Smithson, 

 which are described as comprising about two 

 hundred titles, besides numberless notes of an 

 encyclopaedical character, " such as are likely 

 to occupy the thoughts of a gentleman of 

 extensive acquirements and liberal views," 

 These manuscripts were destroyed by the fire 

 of 1865, but not until extended extracts had 

 been made from them by Walter R. Johnson, 

 a member of the National Institute of Wash- 

 ington, in whose possession the papers and 

 books of Smithson remained until the forma- 

 tion of the Institution. The paper by John- 



son will be found in Volume xxi of the 

 " Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections," 

 and these lost papers are the original sources 

 of some statements made here which can no 

 longer be verified by comparison with the 

 originals. 



4. These sources are not only contained 

 in, but are largely supplemented by, the ex- 

 cellent memoir on " James Smithson and his 

 Bequest," by Mr. William J. Rhees, form- 

 ing part of Volume xxi of the " Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections," without which 

 the biography of Smithson can hardly be 

 written, and from which the writer has here 

 frequently quoted textually, without other 

 acknowledgment than this general and ex- 

 plicit one. 



5. Another source of information is the re- 

 searches made by the writer with the aid of 

 Doctor Cyrus Adler, Librarian of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, in England, in 1894. 



