Portrait Medal of James Smithson
date: label: date made
content: 1817
name: label: maker
content: Paris Mint
label: obverse engraver
content: Tiolier, Nicholas P.
notes: label: Description
content: James Smithson was born in 1765, the illegitimate son of Sir Hugh Smithson, later known as Sir Hugh Percy, Baronet, 1st Duke of Northumberland, K.G., and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate. Elizabeth Keate had been married to James Macie, and so Smithson first bore the name of James Lewis Macie.
label: Description
content: His mother later married Mark Dickinson, by whom she had another son. When she died in 1800, he and his half-brother inherited a sizable estate. He changed his name at this time from Macie to Smithson. James Smithson died June 27, 1829, in Genoa, Italy. His will left his fortune to his nephew, son of his half-brother, but stipulated that if that nephew died without children (legitimate or illegitimate), the money should go "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."
label: Description
content: The nephew, Henry Hungerford Dickinson, died without heirs in 1835, and Smithson's bequest was accepted in 1836 by the United States Congress. Smithson never visited the United States, and the reason for his generous bequest is unknown. But his gift was the foundation grant for the Smithsonian Institution.
label: Description
content: In 1817, while living in Genoa, Italy, Smithson commissioned a gifted Italian sculptor named Antonio Canova to create his portrait in the form of this medal. Smithson evidently approved of Canova's efforts: he scratched his name on the other, otherwise blank side of his medal. It is still visible today, very faint after the passage of nearly two centuries.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
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content: Coins
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content: Numismatics
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content: Coins, Currency and Medals
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content: Legendary Coins
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Zoomable Image and Details
label: Related Publication
content: Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1991.0009.0393
label: catalog number
content: 1991.0009.0393
label: accession number
content: 1991.0009
objectType: label: Object Name
content: medal
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cast (overall production method)
label: Physical Description
content: bronze (overall metal)
label: Physical Description
content: oval (overall shape)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 63.3 mm x 52.6 mm; 2 1/2 in x 2 1/16 in