The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution and the Birth of the Smithsonian
By Heather Ewing (Bloomsbury, 2007, $29.95)

Since its founding in 1846, one of the most enduring mysteries of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has been the man who was its founder, British chemist James Smithson (1765-1829). For more than a century and a half, only the sketchiest of details have been known about the man.

Equally puzzling were Smithson's intentions in writing the sentence in his will that led to the founding of the Smithsonian. He bequeathed his fortune to the United States—a country he never visited—to "found in Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

Compounding Smithsons mystery, an 1865 fire destroyed nearly all of his personal effects—journals, correspondence, some 200 unpublished scientific papers and his mineral collection.

In The Lost World of James Smithson, author Heather Ewing resurrects the life and scientific career of James Smithson by tracking down old diaries, letters, probate records, bank books, police dossiers, organizational minutes and other documents long buried in archives and libraries across Europe. Using this information, Ewing meticulously constructs a solid portrait of Smithson from hundreds of scattered sources.

Smithson, who went by the name James Macie until he was 35, was the illegitimate son of Hugh Smithson, the first Duke of Northumberland (1714-1786) and Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie (1728-1800). Smithson's mother, Ewing reveals, was high-strung, haughty, tempestuous and "a domineering, emotionally erratic presence for her fatherless son."

After attending Oxford University, during which he pledged himself to the study of chemistry and mineralogy, Smithson soon gained the respect of his colleagues for his skill in chemistry and geology and enthusiasm for science. He and his young  contemporaries "felt themselves to be on the cusp of greatness," Ewing writes. "They had discovered a life imbued with purpose, founded upon a belief that chemistry could be an engine of improvement and prosperity. Smithson in particular stood out as exceptional...."

On April 18, 1787, Smithson became, at 22, the youngest member of the Royal Society. In 1791, he published his first scientific paper, "An Account of the Tabasheer," in the Royal Society's prestigious journal Philosophical Transactions.

In The Lost World of James Smithson   Ewing not only resurrects Smithson but re-creates the optimistic atmosphere of the scientific age of enlightenment in England and Europe and the turmoil of the French Revolution. In researching her book, Ewing retraced Smithson's footsteps across Europe “walking the streets, visiting the museums and the mineral collections, looking as I might through his eyes,” she writes.

Smithson's friends were a virtual who’s who of European scientists between the 1780s and the 1820s—Sir Joseph Banks, Joseph Priestley, Antoine Lavoisier, Henry Cavendish, to name only a few. "Even as the world they inhabited was convulsed by war, they proclaimed themselves citizens of the globe and pledged allegiance first of all to truth and reason," Ewing writes. "Their highest aspiration was to be a benefactor of all mankind."

Smithson himself was "a man of infectious exuberance and ambition...," Ewing observes. "How can a man of his ardor ever be idle?" queried one of Smithson's friends. "Macie is my delight!" wrote another. "His brain like my own is fruitful in whimsies."

The Lost World of James Smithson is filled with fascinating details of Smithson's life. For example, he excelled at the use of the blowpipe, a mouth-driven implement for directing a hot flame upon a mineral specimen to study its chemical composition. He was a tireless collector of minerals and worked his entire life to complete his cabinet of mineral specimens. In 1807, Smithson was arrested and spent nearly two years as a prisoner of war in Tönning, Denmark.

In writing this book, Ewing has done a great service to the Smithsonian, finally giving the Institution a very clear image of the humanity, vision and voice of its founder and namesake.