Object Details
- Creator
- Smithsonian Institution
- Subject
- Smithson, James 1765-1829
- Smithsonian Institution Building (Washington, D.C.)
- Smithson's remains were brought to the United States by Smithsonian Regent Alexander Graham Bell in 1904, when the Protestant Cemetery in Genoa, Italy, where Smithson was buried, was to be moved. Many plans were made for an elaborate memorial to the Institution's benefactor, but the lack of an appropriation dictated a more modest course. Smithson's marker from the Italian gravesite was incorporated into the room, and a gate was fashioned from pieces of the fence that had surrounded the site. Architects Hornblower and Marshall redesigned the room to give it a more somber classical feeling, replacing the ceiling, windows, and the floor.
- Summary
- Interior view, crypt containing the body of founder James Smithson at the North Tower entrance of the Smithsonian Institution Building, or Castle, after renovation of the crypt room in 1973-1974.
- Cite as
- Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 31, Folder 26, Image No. SIA_000095_B31_F26_005
- Repository Loc.
- Smithsonian Institution Archives Capital Gallery, Suite 3000, MRC 507; 600 Maryland Avenue, SW; Washington, DC 20024-2520
- 1974
- June 1974
- Local number
- SIA RU000095 [SIA_000095_B31_F26_005]
- Restrictions & Rights
- No access restrictions. Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
- No Known Copyright
- Type
- Color transparencies
- Physical description
- Color slides; 35mm;
- Smithsonian Institution Archives
- Topic
- Crypts
- Record ID
- siris_arc_403332
