Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Henri-Joseph Johns
Taken: 1816
Caption: James Smithson (Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery)
Additional Description: Englishman James Smithson commissioned this forthright portrait from a Belgian artist working in present-day Aachen, possibly as a gift for a family member. Always painfully aware of his uncertain status as an illegitimate child of the Duke of Northumberland, he focused on his scientific publishing in chemistry and mineralogy. In 1826 he penned his most unusual will, providing for the establishment of the “Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men.” - National Portrait Gallery
Submitted: December 4, 2017, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.
Database Locator Identification Number: p406920
File Size: 0.080 Megabytes

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