Birthday of Joseph Henry, First Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Joseph Henry was born 211 years ago today, on December 17, 1797. 

Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was a remarkable man. His interests spanned the scientific and academic world, from anthropology to meteorology, and he believed that the quest for and imparting of knowledge were central to the mission of the Smithsonian.

This photograph of Henry was taken around 1860, by the Mathew Brady Studio and produced as a carte de visite—a sort of trading card and celebrity collectable. It is on display at the National Portrait Gallery, in the American Origins exhibition, on the museum’s first floor.

In Joseph Henry's words:

The worth and importance of the Institution is not to be estimated by what it accumulates within the walls of its building, but by what it sends forth to the world. Its great mission is to facilitate the use of implements of research, and to diffuse the knowledge which this use may develop.

Henry’s work in electromagnetism was part of the collective effort that made the telegraph possible; in Henry’s honor, the scientific community calls the unit of measure of electrical inductance the henry.

In 1879, William B. Taylor wrote the following, which was read into the proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Washington after Henry’s death:

In his own pursuits Truth was the supreme object of his regard—the sole interest and incentive of his investigations; and in its prosecution he brought to bear in equable combination qualities of a high order; quickness and correctness of perception, inventive ingenuity in experimentation, logical precision in deduction, perseverance in exploration, sagacity in interpretation.

Henry was Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1846 until his death in 1878. He was also a professor at the College of New Jersey (Princeton) for sixteen years and served as president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1868 to 1878. Henry is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and a statue bearing his likeness stands in front of the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall in Washington.

For more information on Henry, see the Joseph Henry Paper’s website, created by the Smithsonian Institution Archives. 

Photograph by David Bjorgen, from Wikipedia Commons. Used via Creative Commons. 

This statue of Joseph Henry stands in front of the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall in Washington. 

Joseph Henry/Mathew Brady Studio, c. 1860/Modern albumen print from wet plate collodion negative/ National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution