Apr

April 24, 1884

April 24, 1884 Smithsonian Chief Clerk William J. Rhees transfers “all the books and papers of the National Institute, which have been stored in the Smithsonian Inst.[itution]” to the Library of the National Museum. The National Institute for the Promotion of Science was a predecessor of the Smithsonian which went defunct in 1862.

William J. Rhees (1830-1907) was hired in 1853 as a “general assistant” and private secretary to Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and by 1855 he held the position of chief clerk. He left the Institution in 1870 to pursue the stationery business in Springfield (state unspecified) but was gone less than a year. He continued as chief clerk under Spencer F. Baird, the second Secretary of the Smithsonian, and by a special act of Congress served as Acting Secretary of the Institution when Baird was absent. After Baird’s death and Samuel P. Langley’s appointment as third Secretary of the Smithsonian, Rhees was asked to take the position of the first keeper of the Archives in 1891,the real origin of the Smithsonian Institution Archives. Rhees served in that post until his death in 1907. He was also a member of the National Museum Building Committee

Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives