16 JAMES SMITHSON AND HIS BEQUEST. 



orphan asylum. An examination of the effects was made by a committee 

 of the National Institute, who made the following report as to part of 

 them : " A cabinet, consisting of a choice and beautiful collection of 

 minerals, comprising probably eight or ten thousand specimens. These, 

 though generally small, arc exceedingly perfect, and constitute a' very 

 complete geological and mineralogical series, embracing the finest varie- 

 ties of crystallization, rendered more valuable by accompanying figures 

 and descrijitions by Mr. Smithson, and in his own handwriting. The cab- 

 inet also contains a valuable suite of meteoric stones, which appear to be 

 specimens of most of the meteorites which had fallen in Europe during 

 several centuries." 



Mr. Francis Markoe, jr., himself an expert mineralogist, in a letter to 

 the American Philosophical Society, 4th August, 1841, says "that 

 among the valuable things contained in the Smithson boxes were found 

 a superb collection, and very large, of precious stones and exquisite crys- 

 tallized minerals, forming, as far as I can judge, decidedly the richest 

 and rarest collection in this country." 



A medallion was found among his effects to which were attached the 

 words "my likeness," written in Smithson's own hand. From this has 

 been engraved the i^ortrait published by the Institution, the great seal 

 ordered by the first Board of Regents, and the vignette which appears 

 on all the Smithsonian publications. The original steel-plate portrait, 

 engraved by J. W. Paradise, of New York, in 1847, was destroyed by 

 fire, but it was finely reproduced for the Institution by Charles Burt, of 

 New York, in 1879. 



A full-length portrait (about one-fourth size) in oil, of Smithson, rep- 

 resenting him in the costume of an Oxford student, was purchased by 

 the Institution in 1850, for thirty guineas, from the widow of John Fitall, 

 a former servant, to whom Smithson granted an annuity in his will. 



Still later, in 1878, the Institution purchased from Mr. George Henry 

 De la Batut, of France, a beautiful miniature in oil, on ivory, painted by 

 Johns, on the 11th of May, 1810, at Aix-la-Ohapelle. 



Tiie effects of Smithson were exhibited in the Patent Ofiice building, 

 Washington, until 1858, when they were transferred to the Smithsonian 

 Institute, where they were unfortunately destroyed by fire on the 24th 

 of January, 1865, with the exception of his books, a very few manu- 

 script notes on minerals, and an oil painting of a landscape. A list of 

 these books now in the Institution will be found in the appendix.* 



The following articles are enumerated as the contents of case 23 in 

 Alfred Hunter's " Popular Catalogue of the Extraordinary Curiosities in 

 the National Institute, arranged in the building belonging to the Patent 

 Office," 1855 : 



" Silver plate with coat of arms of the Northumberland family ; 

 chemical apparatus, test-cups, &cj thermometer, snuff-box, portrait of 



* See Appendix — Note 8. 



