James Smithson published numerous scientific papers for the Royal Society during the early 1800s as well as defining calamine, which would eventually be renamed after him as "smithsonite".
20 Facts About James Smithson
2.
James Smithson was the founding donor of the Smithsonian Institution, which bears his name.
3.
James Smithson adopted his father's original surname of Smithson in 1800, following his mother's death.
4.
James Smithson attended university at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1782, eventually graduating with a Master of Arts in 1786.
5.
Highly regarded for his blowpipe analysis and his ability to work in miniature, James Smithson spent much of his life traveling extensively throughout Europe; he published some 27 papers in his life.
6.
James Smithson never married and had no children; therefore, when he wrote his will, he left his estate to his nephew, or his nephew's family if his nephew died before James Smithson.
7.
James Smithson died in Genoa, Italy, on 27 June 1829, aged 64.
8.
James Smithson was born in c 1765 to Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie.
9.
James Smithson's mother was the widow of John Macie, a wealthy man from Weston, Bath.
10.
An illegitimate child, Smithson was born in secret in Paris, resulting in his birth name being the Francophone Jacques-Louis Macie.
11.
James Smithson enrolled at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1782 and graduated in 1786 with an MA.
12.
James Smithson arranged a transfer to Hamburg, where he was again imprisoned, now by the French.
13.
James Smithson's wealth stemmed from the splitting of his mother's estate with his half-brother, Col.
14.
James Smithson studied subjects ranging from coffee making to the use of calamine, eventually renamed smithsonite, in making brass.
15.
James Smithson studied the chemistry of human tears, snake venom and other natural occurrences.
16.
James Smithson socialised and worked with scientists Joseph Priestley, Sir Joseph Banks, Antoine Lavoisier, and Richard Kirwan.
17.
James Smithson explored and examined Kirkdale Cave; his findings, published in 1824, successfully challenged previous beliefs that the fossils within the formations at the cave were from the Great Flood.
18.
James Smithson was buried in a Protestant cemetery overlooking Sampierdarena.
19.
The final funds from James Smithson were received in 1864 from Marie de la Batut, James Smithson's nephew's mother.
20.
The cemetery where James Smithson rested was going to be moved in 1905, for the expansion of an adjacent quarry.