"The Lost World of James Smithson"

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: Chemical Heritage Foundation

In 1836 the United States government received an extraordinary and mysterious gift --a half-million-dollar bequest to establish a foundation in Washington "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." The donor was an English chemist named James Smithson, who had never visited the United States. The Smithsonian went on to become the largest museum and research complex in the world and one of the best known, but the man behind the institution remained an enigma. Ewing's The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian is the first full biography of Smithson. She will talk about her search for information on Smithson in archives across Europe and the United States, and how Smithson's story emerged through the mapping of the network of Enlightenment scientists in which he worked.