List of Smithsonian museums

[1] The birth of the Smithsonian Institution can be traced to the acceptance of James Smithson's legacy, willed to the United States in 1826.

Smithson died in 1829, and in 1836, President Andrew Jackson informed Congress of the gift, which it accepted.

Under the second secretary, Spencer Fullerton Baird, the Smithsonian turned into a full-fledged museum, mostly through the acquisition of 60 boxcars worth of displays from the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

The income from the exhibition of these artifacts allowed for the construction of the National Museum, which is now known as the Arts and Industries Building.

This structure was opened in 1881 to provide the Smithsonian with its first proper facility for public display of the growing collections.

The Smithsonian also holds close ties with over 200 museums in all 50 states, as well as Panama and Puerto Rico.

An aged bronze statue of a man wearing a robe. His left hand rests on a book which sits on a pedestal and the statue is in front of a red brick building reminiscent of a Romanesque Cathedral
Statue of Joseph Henry , the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution , in front of the Smithsonian Institution Building