68th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting (2005) 5120.pdf

JAMES SMITHSON (c1765-1829): FOUNDER & ITS FIRST METEORITE INVESTIGATOR. R. S. Clarke, Jr.1 and H. P. Ewing2. 1Department of Mineral Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. , USA. E-mail: [email protected]. 2Institutional History Division, SIA, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA.

An enigmatic Englishman, James Smithson, bequeathed a large fortune to the United States that led to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington in 1846. He had never visited the US and was completely unknown here, and his motivations are still mysterious. His extensive personal archive and large meteorite-containing mineral collection were included in the bequest and traveled successfully from London to Washington in 1838. Tragically, they were both lost a few years later, in 1865, in a disastrous fire in the Smithsonian Institution Building before they could reveal their stories. All that remained of his meteorites is a tantalizing quotation: “The [mineral] cabinet also contains a valuable suite of meteoric stones, which appear to be suites of most of the important meteorites which have fallen in during several centuries.” Smithson’s mature years spanned late 18th century Enlightenment with its skepticism about meteorites and passed into the early 19th century period of serious discussion of their origins: a transformation from an Aristotelian view that space was empty to the realization that small bodies fall from space to the Earth’s surface. He was there at the beginning of modern meteoritics, and recent archival research reveals that he was an active participant in the scientific discussion as well as a meteorite collector [1]. William Thomson (1761-1806) was a mentor of Smithson during his student years at Oxford, 1782-1786, and became a life- long friend. Thomson left England in 1790 for residence in Naples where he became an active investigator of Mt. Vesuvius. He was monitoring the Vesuvius’s massive June 15, 1894 eruption when the Siena meteorite fell the next day, on June 16, 200 km to the north. Smithson was residing in Florence at the time and went immediately over the Chianti Hills to investigate this seminal fall that Thomson later described. Reports from the period show Smithson to have been very highly regarded by his Italian scientific colleagues. Smithson spent much of his life on the Continent, particularly in where he was acquainted with the scientific leadership of the day. There were also periods in other French locations, and in various locations in Italy and Germany, all interspersed with periods in London. His contacts in these places were the scientific leadership of the area. He knew and was known by the leading mineralogists of the day, and Smithsoin was regarded by them as an accomplished mineral collector, mineralogist, and particularly as an accomplished chemical analyst of minerals. Although he apparently never worked on meteorites himself, he actively followed the developing science throughout his life. References: [1] Ewing, H. P. 2005. Manuscript of Smithson biography in preparation to be published by Bloomsbery, London, 2006.