Model for Seated Statue of James Smithson by Gutzon Borglum

1904 / 27 1/8”x10 1/8”x11 1/2” / Painted plaster / Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC

[There are four embedded links above]

In 1826, three years before his death, Smithson penned his own will directing that his fortune be left to his nephew, Henry James Dickinson, son of his brother, Henry Louis Dickinson. Smithson also implicitly requested that the nephew adopt the family name Hungerford, which he did if only for a brief time. https://www.si.edu/ahhp/smithsons_will#

Smithson further stipulated that:

“In the case of the death of my said Nephew without leaving a child or children, or the death of the child or children he may have had under the age of twenty-one years or intestate, I then bequeath the whole of my property… to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men”. https://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/stories/last-will-and-testament-october-23-1826