May
15

May 15, 1840

May 15, 1840 The National Institution for the Promotion of Science is organized “to promote science and the useful arts, and to establish a national museum of natural history. . .” Its organizers, including Joel R. Poinsett, hope to secure control of the James Smithson bequest. The National Institution later changes its name to the National Institute. Their collections are transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in the 1850s.

The image  shows Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851), Secretary of War and founder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science. He organized the first National Gallery of Art in 1850, in what was then the new Patent Office Building. The portrait was drawn from life and engraved by J.B. Longacre, c.1850.

Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives

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Posted: 15 May 2012
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