page_title: James Smithson
section_title: Memorial
hierarchical_section_title: James Smithson / Legacy and the Smithsonian / Memorial
caption_attribution_description: English: 1896 marble grave marker for James Smithson in the crypt of the Smithsonian Institution Building, Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: James Smithson FRS was an English chemist and mineralogist. He published numerous scientific papers for the Royal Society during the late 1700s as well as assisting in the development of calamine, which would eventually be renamed after him as "smithsonite". He was the founding donor of the Smithsonian Institution, which also bears his name.
  Born in Paris, France as the illegitimate child of Hugh Percy, the 1st Duke of Northumberland, he was given the French name Jacques-Louis Macie. His birth date was not recorded and the exact location of his birth is unknown; it is possibly in the Pentemont Abbey. Shortly after his birth he naturalized to Britain where his name was anglicized to James Louis Macie. He adopted his father's original surname of Smithson in 1800, following his mother's death. He attended university at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1782, eventually graduating with an honorary Master of Arts in 1786. As a student he participated in a geological expedition to Scotland and studied chemistry and mineralogy.
context_section_description: After the arrival of Smithson's remains, the Board of Regents asked Congress to fund a memorial. Artists and architects were solicited to create proposals for the monument. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Louis Saint-Gaudens, Gutzon Borglum, Totten & Rogers, Henry Bacon, and Hornblower & Marshall were some of the many artists and architectural firms who submitted proposals. The proposals varied in design, from elaborate monumental tombs that, if built, would have been bigger than the Lincoln Memorial, to smaller monuments just outside the Smithsonian Castle. Congress decided not to fund the memorial. To accommodate the fact that the Smithsonian would have to fund the memorial, they used the design of Gutzon Borglum, which suggested a remodel of the south tower room of the Smithsonian Castle to house the memorial surrounded by four Corinthian columns and a vaulted ceiling. Instead of the tower room, a smaller room (at the time it was the janitor's closet) at the north entrance would house an Italian-style sarcophagus.
  On 8 December 1904 the Italian crypt was shipped, in sixteen crates from Italy. It travelled on the same ship that the remains of Smithson travelled on. Architecture firm Hornblower & Marshall designed the mortuary chapel, which included marble laurel wreaths and a neo-classical design. Smithson was entombed on 6 March 1905. His casket, which had been held in the Regent's Room, was placed into the ground underneath the crypt. This chapel was to serve as a temporary space for Smithson's remains until Congress approved a larger memorial. However, that never happened, and the remains of Smithson still lie there today.
caption: Smithson's gravestone in the Smithsonian Institution Castle
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