Smithson

[smith-suhn]

noun

1. James, 1765–1829, English chemist and mineralogist.

Smithson

/ ˈsmɪθsən /

noun

1. James. original name James Lewes Macie. 1765–1829, English chemist and mineralogist, who left a bequest to found the Smithsonian Institution

Example Sentences

To understand this development, it might help to consider the Smithsonian’s early history, as recounted in “Smithson’s Gamble: The Smithsonian Institution in American Life, 1836-1906.”

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Henry, though, seems to have grasped Smithson’s motivation.

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Two American scientific journals had published papers by Smithson.

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Smithson’s biographer, Heather Ewing, has noted that Smithson was friends with a “who’s who of European science,” men who “proclaimed themselves citizens of the globe.”

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The very spirit of enterprise that lured Smithson’s money in the first place could also be associated with a kind of restlessness, mounting recurring challenges to the established order.

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