| Many notable events occurred in the year 1846-more, | | | | matters as the Wilmot Proviso, the Oregon question, |
| indeed, than we shall here take space to enumerate. It | | | | and a war with Mexico. |
| was an important year in our national history. An | | | | On December 3, 1846, Prof. Joseph Henry, 49-year-old |
| American historian, Bernard DeVoto, published a | | | | physicist from Princeton University, was elected the |
| 500-page book called "The Year of Decision: 1846," | | | | first secretary to head the new organization, and on |
| and it is surprising to see how well that year served as | | | | December 23 the site for the Smithsonian Building was |
| a milestone in our country's development. Scientifically, | | | | selected. To increase and diffuse knowledge among |
| too, it was a year of decision, for in August 1846, after | | | | men- this indeed has been the guiding purpose of the |
| many sessions of debate on Capitol Hill, Congress | | | | Institution, as Smithson intended, during these first |
| finally decided what was to be done with James | | | | hundred years of its history. Oddly enough, however, |
| Smithson's $500,000 bequest to the United States of | | | | most of the two million and more visitors who now |
| America. | | | | stroll through its halls every year get only a one-sided |
| In those early days great endowments for scientific, | | | | picture of its aims and achievements. Most of them |
| educational, and humanitarian purposes were not so | | | | think of the Smithsonian as primarily a museum. They |
| common as they are today, and half a million dollars | | | | come to see its prize exhibits, such as the Spirit of St. |
| was considered a tidy sum. How best to appropriate | | | | Louis and the Winnie Mae, the original Star Spangled |
| this money was a question not to be taken lightly. | | | | Banner, the Presidents' wives' dresses, the paintings in |
| There were those, in fact, who thought, with Senator | | | | its art galleries, the animals in its National Zoological |
| Calhoun, that it was beneath the dignity of this nation | | | | Park, and thousands of other unique and interesting |
| even to accept this gift, especially from a foreigner. | | | | objects. |
| Smithson had specified that he wanted to found at | | | | Few of them are aware of what is going on, and |
| Washington an institution for the increase and diffusion | | | | what has gone on, behind the scenes. But the fact is |
| of knowledge among men. This simple desire, it seems, | | | | that the Institution's museum exhibit activities, important |
| was subject to broad and varied interpretation, but at | | | | as they have been from almost the beginning, are only |
| last the argument, and discussion ended, President Polk | | | | half the story. They, together with the Smithsonian's |
| signed the bill founding the Smithsonian Institution, and | | | | thousands of publications, represent the "diffusion of |
| the legislators resumed their concern with such | | | | knowledge" that Smithson envisioned. |