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In 1835, the United States got some amazing news. James Smithson of England had given the U.S. half a million dollars. He had never even set foot here. So why did he give us the money?
He wanted the U.S. to set up a Smithsonian Institution “to increase . . . knowledge among men.” Three years later, 105 bags of gold coins arrived. The nation’s leaders were confused. First they argued about whether to take the money. Then they couldn’t decide how to use it. Finally, Congress passed an act in 1846. This set up the Smithsonian Institution to be a museum and a research organization. Its first building was completed in 1852. Today the Smithsonian includes 19 museums. Seventeen are in Washington, D.C., There are also nine research centers and the National Zoo. The newest addition is the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It’s set to open soon.
The Smithsonian has been called the Nation’s Attic. That’s because its museums contain so many national treasures.
◀ Ten of the Smithsonian’s museums are located on or near the Mall. This is a huge green lawn that runs from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. It was part of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original city design. The annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival takes place here. The Blossom Kite Festival takes place here, too. So does the National Independence Day celebration. The Million Man March was held here in 1995. ▼
The Anacostia Neighborhood Museum is all about African American history. The Griffiths family of Washington, D.C., donated personal items. Many had been passed down from generation to generation, from the early 1900s through the 1960s. There were dolls, letters, cookbooks, and schoolbooks. Old jewelry boxes were filled with bus tokens and political buttons. These things show what daily life was like in the twentieth century. This mural is from an exhibit called “Whose Art Is It Anyway?” ▶
◀ Want to see Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone? How about gowns that the first ladies wore to inaugural balls? What about George Washington’s gold-and-ivory false teeth? Want to see Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz? You’ll find all these and thousands of other pieces in the National Museum of American History.
▲ Walk in one door at the National Museum of Natural History, and you’ll see a 13-foot-tall African elephant. Enter through another, and you’ll pass two giant totem poles. They were carved by Northwest Coast Indians. Inside the museum, you’ll find dinosaur skeletons. There’s also a model of a blue whale and the world’s largest blue diamond. The museum also has a live-insect zoo. You can watch tarantulas being fed there. Or you can check out a foot-long centipede. You can even pet a hissing cockroach.
▲ The National Air and Space Museum is the world’s most popular museum. Ten million people a year visit to look at its historical flying machines. These include the plane Amelia Earhart flew in 1932. That’s when she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic on her own. The Wright Brothers’ first plane is there, too. It hangs as high off the ground as it rose on its first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Spirit of St. Louis is there, too. Charles Lindbergh flew it on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic. The museum also has the Apollo spacecraft, in which man first landed on the Moon.
◀ Who are the most famous animals in the National Zoo? They’re probably Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. They’re giant pandas on loan from China.
