The Lost World Of James Smithson

Author : Heather Ewing
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 577 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2010-12-15
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781408820759

Get Book

The Lost World of James Smithson by Heather Ewing Pdf

In 1836 the United States government received a strange and unprecedented gift - a bequest of 104,960 gold sovereigns (then worth half a million dollars) to establish a foundation in Washington 'for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men'. The Smithsonian Institution, as it would eventually be called, grew into the largest museum and research complex in the world. Yet it owes its existence to an Englishman who never set foot in the United States, and who has remained a shadowy figure for more than a hundred and fifty years. Smithson lived a restless life in the capitals of Europe during the turbulent years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars; at one time he was trailed by the French secret police, and later languished as a prisoner of war in Denmark for four long years. Yet despite a certain a penchant for gambling and fine living, he had, by the time of his death in Paris in 1829, amassed a financial fortune and a wealth of scientific papers that he left to the new democracy America. Spurned by his natural father and his country, he would be acknowledged for his own achievements in the New World. Drawing on unpublished diaries and letters from archives all over Europe and the United States, Heather Ewing tells the full and compelling story for the first time, revealing a life lived at the heart of the English Enlightenment and illuminating the mind that sparked the creation of America's greatest museum.

Author : Nina Burleigh
Publisher : New Word City
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2015-03-13
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781612308494

Get Book

The Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the Making of America's Greatest Museum by Nina Burleigh Pdf

In her illuminating and dramatic biography The Stranger and the Statesman, New York Times bestselling author Nina Burleigh reveals a little-known slice of history in the life and times of the man responsible for the creation of the United States' principal cultural institution, the Smithsonian. It was one of the nineteenth century's greatest philanthropic gifts - and one of its most puzzling mysteries. In 1829, a wealthy English naturalist named James Smithson left his library, mineral collection, and entire fortune to the "United States of America, to found... an establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men" - even though he had never visited the United States or known any Americans. In this fascinating book, Burleigh pieces together the reclusive benefactor's life, beginning with his origins as the Paris-born illegitimate son of the first Duke of Northumberland and a wild adventuress who preserved for her son a fortune through gall and determination. The book follows Smithson through his university years and his passionate study of minerals across Europe during the chaos of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Detailed are his imprisonment - simply for being an Englishman in the wrong place - his experiences in the gambling dens of France, and his lonely and painstaking scientific pursuits. After Smithson's death, nineteenth-century American politicians were given the task of securing his half-million dollars - the equivalent today of $50 million - and then trying to determine how to increase and diffuse knowledge from the muddy, brawling new city of Washington. Burleigh discloses how Smithson's bequest was nearly lost due to fierce battles among many clashing Americans - Southern slavers, states' rights advocates, nation-builders, corrupt frontiersmen, and Anglophobes who argued over whether a gift from an Englishman should even be accepted. She also reveals the efforts of the unsung heroes, mainly former president John Quincy Adams, whose tireless efforts finally saw Smithson's curious notion realized in 1846, with a castle housing the United States' first and greatest cultural and scientific establishment.

Author : Steven Turner
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2020-11-03
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781588346902

Get Book

The Science of James Smithson by Steven Turner Pdf

Accessible exploration of the noteworthy scientific career of James Smithson, who left his fortune to establish the Smithsonian Institution. James Smithson is best known as the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, but few people know his full and fascinating story. He was a widely respected chemist and mineralogist and a member of the Royal Society, but in 1865, his letters, collection of 10,000 minerals, and more than 200 unpublished papers were lost to a fire in the Smithsonian Castle. His scientific legacy was further written off as insignificant in an 1879 essay published through the Smithsonian fifty years after his death--a claim that author Steven Turner demonstrates is far from the truth. By providing scientific and intellectual context to his work, The Science of James Smithson is a comprehensive tribute to Smithson's contributions to his fields, including chemistry, mineralogy, and more. This detailed narrative illuminates Smithson and his quest for knowledge at a time when chemists still debated thing as basic as the nature of fire, and struggled to maintain their networks amid the ever-changing conditions of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

Author : Adam Kuper
Publisher : Pantheon
Page : 433 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2024-04-16
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780593700686

Get Book

The Museum of Other People by Adam Kuper Pdf

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • From one of the world’s most distinguished anthropologists, an important and timely work of cultural history that looks at the origins and much debated future of anthropology museums “A provocative look at questions of ethnography, ownership and restitution . . . the argument [Kuper] makes in The Museum of Other People is important precisely because just about no one else is making it. He asks the questions that others are too shy to pose. . . . Required reading.” –Financial Times (UK) In this deeply researched, immersive history, Adam Kuper tells the story of how foreign and prehistoric peoples and cultures were represented in Western museums of anthropology. Originally created as colonial enterprises, their halls were populated by displays of plundered art, artifacts, dioramas, bones, and relics. Kuper reveals the politics and struggles of trying to build these museums in Germany, France, and England in the mid-19th century, and the dramatic encounters between the very colorful and eccentric collectors, curators, political figures, and high members of the church who founded them. He also details the creation of contemporary museums and exhibitions, including the Smithsonian, the Harvard’s Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, and the famous 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago which was inspired by the Paris World Fair of 1889. Despite the widespread popularity and cultural importance of these institutions, there also lies a murky legacy of imperialism, colonialism, and scientific racism in their creation. Kuper tackles difficult questions of repatriation and justice, and how best to ensure that the future of these museums is an ethical, appreciative one that promotes learning and cultural exchange. A stunning, unique, accessible work based on a lifetime of research, The Museum of Other People reckons with the painfully fraught history of museums of natural history, and how curators, anthropologists, and museumgoers alike can move forward alongside these time-honored institutions.

Author : Steven Turner
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2020-11-03
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781588346933

Get Book

The Science of James Smithson by Steven Turner Pdf

Accessible exploration of the noteworthy scientific career of James Smithson, who left his fortune to establish the Smithsonian Institution. James Smithson is best known as the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, but few people know his full and fascinating story. He was a widely respected chemist and mineralogist and a member of the Royal Society, but in 1865, his letters, collection of 10,000 minerals, and more than 200 unpublished papers were lost to a fire in the Smithsonian Castle. His scientific legacy was further written off as insignificant in an 1879 essay published through the Smithsonian fifty years after his death--a claim that author Steven Turner demonstrates is far from the truth. By providing scientific and intellectual context to his work, The Science of James Smithson is a comprehensive tribute to Smithson's contributions to his fields, including chemistry, mineralogy, and more. This detailed narrative illuminates Smithson and his quest for knowledge at a time when chemists still debated thing as basic as the nature of fire, and struggled to maintain their networks amid the ever-changing conditions of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

Author : Eleanor Jones Harvey
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 445 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2020-04-14
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780691200804

Get Book

Alexander Von Humboldt and the United States by Eleanor Jones Harvey Pdf

The enduring influence of naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt on American art, culture, and politics Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was one of the most influential scientists and thinkers of his age. A Prussian-born geographer, naturalist, explorer, and illustrator, he was a prolific writer whose books graced the shelves of American artists, scientists, philosophers, and politicians. Humboldt visited the United States for six weeks in 1804, engaging in a lively exchange of ideas with such figures as Thomas Jefferson and the painter Charles Willson Peale. It was perhaps the most consequential visit by a European traveler in the young nation's history, one that helped to shape an emerging American identity grounded in the natural world. In this beautifully illustrated book, Eleanor Jones Harvey examines how Humboldt left a lasting impression on American visual arts, sciences, literature, and politics. She shows how he inspired a network of like-minded individuals who would go on to embrace the spirit of exploration, decry slavery, advocate for the welfare of Native Americans, and extol America's wilderness as a signature component of the nation's sense of self. Harvey traces how Humboldt's ideas influenced the transcendentalists and the landscape painters of the Hudson River School, and laid the foundations for the Smithsonian Institution, the Sierra Club, and the National Park Service. Alexander von Humboldt and the United States looks at paintings, sculptures, maps, and artifacts, and features works by leading American artists such as Albert Bierstadt, George Catlin, Frederic Church, and Samuel F. B. Morse. Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC Exhibition Schedule Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC September 18, 2020–January 3, 2021

Author : 彭兆荣等
Publisher : BEIJING BOOK CO. INC.
Page : 585 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2021-11-09
Category : History
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

Get Book

联合国及相关国家的遗产体系 by 彭兆荣等 Pdf

本书详细介绍了联合国和美国、法国、日本、澳大利亚、中国的遗产体系及其生成演化的历史，目的是为了更全面地探索中国非物质文化遗产体系在世界遗产体系中的角色。

Author : Robert Manns
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2008-01-30
Category : Drama
ISBN : 9780595605217

Get Book

The Smithson Matter by Robert Manns Pdf

The Smithson Matter, together with its one-act Introduction, recounts the personal and political maneuvers behind the creation of the great Smithsonian Institute. The Introduction presents James Smithson, n Macie, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland and the fashionable Elizabeth Macie. Frustrated by the English class society that stigmatizes him and inspired by the equality of the new American States, he resolves to leave his fortune to that country, to be used to create an institute "for the dissemination of knowledge to the common man." The Smithson Matter itself takes place during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. While former president-now Massachusetts representative-John Quincy Adams struggles to maintain the original intent of the Smithson bequest, other congressmen lobby for a piece here and a slice there to please their own constituencies. Clearly, politics has not changed much in the past 175 years. Told with wit and wisdom, The Smithson Matter delves into the personalities of James Smithson and John Quincy Adams with affection and historical accuracy.

Author : Richard Kurin
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 784 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2013-10-29
Category : History
ISBN : 9781101638774

Get Book

The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects by Richard Kurin Pdf

The Smithsonian Institution is America's largest, most important, and most beloved repository for the objects that define our common heritage. Now Under Secretary for Art, History, and Culture Richard Kurin, aided by a team of top Smithsonian curators and scholars, has assembled a literary exhibition of 101 objects from across the Smithsonian's museums that together offer a marvelous new perspective on the history of the United States. Ranging from the earliest years of the pre-Columbian continent to the digital age, and from the American Revolution to Vietnam, each entry pairs the fascinating history surrounding each object with the story of its creation or discovery and the place it has come to occupy in our national memory. Kurin sheds remarkable new light on objects we think we know well, from Lincoln's hat to Dorothy's ruby slippers and Julia Child's kitchen, including the often astonishing tales of how each made its way into the collections of the Smithsonian. Other objects will be eye-opening new discoveries for many, but no less evocative of the most poignant and important moments of the American experience. Some objects, such as Harriet Tubman's hymnal, Sitting Bull's ledger, Cesar Chavez's union jacket, and the Enola Gay bomber, tell difficult stories from the nation's history, and inspire controversies when exhibited at the Smithsonian. Others, from George Washington's sword to the space shuttle Discovery, celebrate the richness and vitality of the American spirit. In Kurin's hands, each object comes to vivid life, providing a tactile connection to American history. Beautifully designed and illustrated with color photographs throughout, The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects is a rich and fascinating journey through America's collective memory, and a beautiful object in its own right.

Author : Abraham Rees
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 820 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1819
Category : Art
ISBN : UOM:39015057234802

Get Book

The Cyclopædia; by Abraham Rees Pdf

Author : James L. Crenshaw
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 1978
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UCAL:B3379585

Get Book

Gerhard Von Rad by James L. Crenshaw Pdf

This book introduces a scholar who, in this century, has surely been one of the world's most influential theologians, and it will be useful both for those well-acquainted with Gerhard von Rad and for those who do not know his work. It is apparent that Professor Crenshaw is engaged in a fascinating dialogue with von Rad. The reader will find a portrait of a unique personality which was in its essence shaped entirely by his intimate study and knowledge of the biblical texts. James L. Crenshaw has especially investigated von Rad's entire literary corpus with great care. With sensitivity he has presented von Rad's methodology and approach as well as his artistic achievement, knowing that von Rad's interpretation of Old Testament texts enables one to see them with new insight. Thus the author draws his readers into a fresh confrontation with the Old and then the New Testaments. In this book one finds a continuation of von Rad's unique gift for making the Old Testament exciting for several generations of university students in all fields, students of theology, and pastors. - Foreword.

Author : Edwards Park,Smithsonian Institution
Publisher : Random House Value Publishing
Page : 504 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0517119552

Get Book

Treasures of the Smithsonian by Edwards Park,Smithsonian Institution Pdf

Features the masterpieces of art, history, invention, and nature selected from the Smithsonian exhibition.

Author : James Burke
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2009-11-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781439127957

Get Book

Circles by James Burke Pdf

From the bestselling author of The Knowledge Web come fifty mesmerizing journeys into the history of technology, each following a chain of consequential events that ends precisely where it began. Whether exploring electromagnetic fields, the origin of hot chocolate, or DNA fingerprinting, these essays -- which originally appeared in James Burke's popular Scientific American column -- all illustrate the serendipitous and surprisingly circular nature of change. In "Room with (Half) a View," for instance, Burke muses about the partly obscured railway bridge outside his home on the Thames. Thinking of the bridge engineer, who also built the steamship that laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable, causes him to recall Samuel Morse; which, in turn, conjures up Morse's neighbor, firearms inventor Sam Colt, and his rival, Remington. One dizzying connection after another leads to Karl Marx's daughter, who attended Socialist meetings with a trombonist named Gustav Holst, who once lived in the very house that blocks Burke's view of the bridge on the Thames. Burke's essays all evolve in this organic manner, highlighting the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated events and innovations. Romantic poetry leads to brandy distillation; tonic water connects through Leibniz to the first explorers to reach the North Pole. Witty, instructive, and endlessly entertaining, Circles expands on the trademark style that has captivated James Burke fans for years. This unique collection is sure to stimulate and delight history buffs, technophiles, and anyone else with a healthy intellectual curiosity.

Author : Holland M. Smith,Percy Finch
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2017-06-29
Category : History
ISBN : 9781387068616

Get Book

Coral and Brass by Holland M. Smith,Percy Finch Pdf

Coral and Brass is the biography of General Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith, known as the "father" of modern U.S. amphibious warfare. His book is a riveting first-hand account of key battles fought in the Pacific between the U.S. Army and Canadian troops against the Japanese, including assaults on the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands, the island of Saipan, Tinian in the Marianas and Iwo Jimo.

Author : Robert C. Post
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2013-10-15
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781421411002

Get Book

Who Owns America's Past? by Robert C. Post Pdf

"From an insider's perspective, Robert C. Post ... offers insight into the politics of display and the interpretation of history. Never before has a book about the Smithsonian detailed the recent and dramatic shift from collection-driven shows, with artifacts meant to speak for themselves, to concept-driven exhibitions, in which objects aim to tell a story, displayed like illustrations in a book"--Dust jacket flap.