November 17, 1800 the United States Congress and then president John Adams move the United States government from the comfort of Philadelphia to the hardly finished and rather rough quarters in Washington D.C. Adams would become the first American president to live in the White House.
Adams’ love of country and ardent desire to separate from Great Britain made him the ideal candidate to join Jefferson and Franklin on the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. Finally Adams’ skill as a writer would find a use. A great use in fact.
The word “museum” means house of the muses and is a designation of places that inspire, inform, entertain and delight. The history of the most well known museum in the country, the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., is an example of how an entire country can inspire one man to leave a firm mark in history.
Born in 1765, James Smithson was the illegitimate son of the English Duke of Northumberland who graduated from the University of Oxford in 1786. He went on to become a noted scientist specializing in chemistry and mineralogy. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and when his mother passed away, Smithson became heir to a sizeable fortune. What he did with that British fortune would become a part of American history.
Smithson began by leaving his inheritance to his only nephew with the stipulation that if his nephew would pass away with no heirs of his own, his bequest would then be deferred in whole to the United States. He left his fortune to the people of America with a single stipulation: the money be used to start a museum called the Smithsonian.
“… 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.”
The naming of the museum was very important to Smithson, who, because of British social correctness was legally named James Macie due to the fact that his father would not officially recognize him as his son. For Smithson, using his father’s name in spite of cultural mores was an act of rebellion truly befitting a want to be American.
The sad yet strange note of Smithson’s legacy is the fact that he never had the opportunity to actually visit the land he viewed as the embodiment of the Enlightenment perspective. He passed away in Italy in 1829. His nephew died without heirs in 1835. In 1836, Congress accepted the bequest officially and in August of 1846, then President James Polk created the trustee board of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Smithsonian Institution remains the guardian and storehouse of American history. From the Spirit of St. Louis to the dresses of former first ladies, the museum is the collective memory of this country. And it all began because a British scientist gave the nation half a million dollars and hoped his dream would come true.
| Sometimes we forget that for many people, America is a place of inspiration, the place where opportunities abound and dreams come true. For Smithson, America was a place where he could be who he truly felt he was, a believer in the power of education to inspire and spark understanding. Lucky for us, Smithson’s dream of a national museum came true. |
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Jewelry in History, a Famous Diamond from the French Courts to a Contemporary Museum. The Hope Diamond has had an intriguing journey through history, augmented by legend and confirmed by the beauty of cut and color it retains. It is a gem that can be said to be among the most famous pieces of jewelry in the world and has a heritage traceable at least to the 1600’s. Its story begins with a goddess and progresses through generations of owners and thieves who suffered or celebrated under the Hope Diamond’s influence. 
It is told that the stone was taken from the eye of a Hindu Goddess and that its removal brought a curse upon anyone who became associated with it. The more factual history is that in 1669 a large blue triangular diamond of roughly 115 carats was included in the inventory of sale to King Louis XIV by a French merchant named Tavernier who had brought it from India. It was subsequently cut in size, to become the 67 carat stone in the King’s collection, later denominated the French Blue, and was worn by him on ceremonial occasions.
More than a hundred years later in 1792 the French Blue, still in possession of the French monarchy, was stolen. As France succumbed to the Revolution, the singular gem was lost and would resurface only in 1812, diminished in size again and bound for a new home. It is thought to have passed through the hands of the British monarchy but was then recorded in 1839 among the gem’s in the collection catalogue of the British Henry Philip Hope. By 1910 what had been the quiet prize of a 17th century expedition had passed through many hands, changing in size and setting, and emerged as a feature of intrigue and glamour in the high society circles of the new millenium. 
The legend of the curse of the Hope Diamond added to its mystique as a gem of royalty and a victim of fugue and clashes of fortune. Today its aura has been tempered by its new home, at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C., but it remains uniquely beautiful in its blue-hewed crystalline structure.
In an era when politicians and pop stars have followings that reach into the millions (and this is seen as a normal part of American culture), it’s hard to imagine a time before adoring the famous was a staple of our collective lives. But until May 20, 1927, and the fame of aviator Charles Lindbergh spread from coast to coast and across the western world, the ‘cult of personality’ was an unknown phrase in the American vocabulary.
The flight was a total of 3, 610 miles taking off from Roosevelt Field in New York and landing at Le Bourget airport in Paris, France. This was not the first time the flight had been attempted. It was the first time it had been accomplished without fatalities or pain. Six pilots had lost their lives and three had been seriously injured attempting the solo flight between continents.
