Smithson Crypt, Smithsonian Castle. December 2021
The strange story of James Smithson and the creation of the Smithsonian Institution always fascinated me.
What if?
.A boy is born illegitimately (and secretly) to an English Duke of Northumberland and a widowed, aristocratic mother, a Percy, of royal English descent in Paris. Paris is a hotbed of politics and intrigue in 1765, so the family whisks him off to the motherland. There, he studies at Oxford and distinguishes himself among his peers. Upon the death of his mother, he changes his name to his father's family name. A mineral is named after him due to his great scientific achievement. He is nominated into the Royal Society of London by Sir Henry Cavendish (an incredibly influential British scientist) and he keeps company with great early scientific pioneers, like Joseph Priestly and James Watt. He is in Paris during the French Revolution and briefly imprisoned. He is freed only to be imprisoned again in Germany until pulling some strings to be released. He never marries, and spends his life travelling around Europe researching. Heir to a disputed estate (no doubt due to his illegitimacy), his share is passed to his nephew with a stipulation: in the case of the nephew having no heir (he does not), the money is designated to establish an educational institution in Washington, DC - a city in a country he never set foot.
I then bequeath the whole of my property, . . . to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men. (Wikipedia)
He dies in Genoa, Italy in 1829 and his grave there is maintained by the American Consulate until his remains are finally removed (with great respect) in 1904 to the institution which bears his name. An honor guard of cavalry deliver him to his new resting place. Upon his re-interment, Alexander Graham Bell, who personally fetched his body from Genoa, says:
And now... my mission is ended and I deliver into your hands... the remains of this great benefactor of the United States (Wikipedia)
In the society of his day, being "illegitimate" must have stung throughout his life. He is quoted as saying:
My name shall live in the memory of man when the titles of the Northumberlands and Percys are extinct and forgotten. (Britannica)
James Smithson, you never lived here, but you are a great American, even if posthumously.