Engraving of the Regents Room in the Smithsonian Institution Building. SIA RU 95, Box 31A, Folder 12, Neg#43804-A.

The Bequest

The Smithsonian Institution was created by the bequest of James Smithson (c. 1765-1829), in which he left his residual estate to the United States to create in the city of Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

Act of Establishment

In 1846, the U.S. Congress passed 9 Stat. 102 creating the Smithsonian Institution as a trust instrumentality of the United States.

The law established a Board of Regents which is responsible for the governance of the Institution. It consists of the Chief Justice, Vice President, three U.S. Senators, three U.S. Representatives, and nine citizens.

Board of Regents Database

A biographical database on all Smithsonian Regents, since our founding, can also be found in the History of the Smithsonian catalog in SIRIS, www.siris.si.edu. Enter your search term and limit your search to the Board of Regents database.

Digitization Projects:

The following documents pertaining to the legal history of the Smithsonian are being prpared and will be placed on this website:

The Smithsonian Institution: Documents Relative to Its Origin and History, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1879, 1901 by William Jones Rhees

Minutes of the Board of Regents, 1846-, published and hand-written accounts of the meetings of the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents

Legal Documents Database

Available now is a database of citations to legal documents related to the history of the Smithsonian.

It contains all Smithsonian-related U.S. Statutes at Large, selected wills, reports, decisions of Attorneys General, Executive Orders, Memoranda of Understanding, court cases, minutes of the Board of Regents, and other materials.

The database can be searched through the History of the Smithsonian catalog in SIRIS, www.siris.si.edu. Enter your search terms and limit your search to the Smithsonian Legal Documents database.

Facsimile of James Smithson's will from the probate office in England, 1826. SIA RU 95, Box 21, Folder 9.