James Smithson Carte de Visite, London, England, ca. 1826
date: label: date made
content: ca 1826
name: label: associated person
content: Smithson, James
notes: label: Description
content: The National Institute for the Promotion of Science acquired James Smithson’s personal effects, displaying them in the National Gallery of the Patent Office beginning in 1842. There, John Varden, the collection’s keeper, apparently helped himself to a supply of Smithson’s calling cards. Varden gave this one to Caleb Bentley, a Quaker silversmith, shopkeeper, and postmaster of Brookeville, Maryland—and a contributor to Varden’s Washington Museum. Varden’s gift to Bentley went unrecorded until 1892, when the card came back to the Smithsonian with an inscription that noted its diversion.
label: Description
content: Bequest of James Smithson, 1829
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, General History Collection
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: Souvenir Nation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2011.0036.01
label: accession number
content: 2011.0036
label: catalog number
content: 2011.0036.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calling card
label: Other Terms
content: Name Card; calling card; Printed
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 1/8 in x 1 in; 7.9375 cm x 2.54 cm