James Louis Macie Smithson, b. c.1765, d. June 27, 1829, was an English chemist and mineralogist who left a substantial sum in his will to found the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian Institution was finally established in 1846 as a scientific institution. Smithson, whose name until 1801 was simply James Louis Macie, graduated from Pembroke College, Oxford, and on Apr. 26, 1787, he became a fellow of the Royal Society. His financial support and independence came from an inherited fortune upon his mother's death in 1800.
Although he never visited the United States, Smithson nevertheless willed his entire fortune to this country "to found, at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." He died in Genoa, Italy in 1829, but his remains were brought to the United States in 1904 for reinterment in the Crypt Room of Smithsonian Institution building.
His achievements as a chemist include the analysis of zinc ores, determining that they consisted mostly of zinc carbonate. This substance was later named smithsonite.
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