Today in History - August 10, 1846 -An Act of Congress signed by President James K. Polk established the Smithsonian Institution as a trust to administer the bequest of James Smithson. Smithson, a British chemist and mineralogist, named his nephew as beneficiary of his will, stipulating that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he would in 1835), the estate 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.” There was much debate among Congress, educators, researchers and the general public about what Smithson meant by the “increase and diffusion of knowledge”. Most thought it meant a university, but State’s rights advocates and others argued that there was no constitutional authority for this. After much discussion and compromise the Smithsonian’s enabling act included an observatory, a scientific research institute, a national library, a publishing house and a museum. One of the first acts of the Smithsonian Regents was to build a home for the Institution in the style of a Norman “Castle” designed by architect James Renwick, Jr., located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The Smithsonian is now the largest museum complex and research organization in the world with 19 museums, 9 research centers, and the National Zoo. The Museum of American History opened to the public in January 1964 as the National Museum of History and Technology. As technology and space exploration grew in importance, the National Air Museum (NAM) was renamed the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) as part of a congressional act authorizing a separate building to house its collections, which opened to the public on July 1, 1976. The museum’s collection dates back to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia when the Smithsonian received a group of kites from the Chinese Imperial Commission. Later, in 1889, the Stringfellow engine was added to the collection. Today the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum “maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics.”

As a child, I recall that going to the Smithsonian was one of my favorite things to do when visiting the east coast. With my anthropologist father, George Agogino, we always stopped by the National Museum of Natural History first. Later, one of his students from the University of Wyoming and the Hell Gap excavation, Dennis Stanford, became Chair of the Anthropology Department at the Smithsonian.

More recently, the Smithsonian just announced that Wayne Clough, civil engineer and Georgia Tech University president, would take on its top leadership position. In an article in the Washington Post Clough says: “I know the Smithsonian, for many people in their minds, is about the past,” Clough said yesterday at a news conference. “But it is not. It is about America’s future.” I have a lot of respect for Wayne Clough and very much valued working with him on the Engineer 2020 project for the National Academy of Engineering that led to the publication of two volumes: The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century and Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century. We both currently serve as Counselors for the National Academy of Engineering as well.

Check out the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on the Smithsonian and also the NAE Engineer 2020 projects. For curricular resources, check out our Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.