Museums for the New Millennium:"Some Reflections on the Board of Regents' First Meeting, on September 7, 1846."
Museums for the New Millennium:The following is an edited transcription of the proceedings of "Museums for the New Millennium." Do not copy or quote any of this text without the written permission of the speaker.
I am Alan Fern, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, and I am especially pleased to have been invited to participate in this part of this symposium. This gives me the opportunity to introduce a very special speaker. After this brief presentation, you will be allowed to eat your lunch, as Rex Ellis has already instructed.
As my Smithsonian colleagues know very well, I cannot pass up the opportunity to say a few words into an unoccupied microphone, so I will defy my instructions to stick to my introduction and tell you how impressed I have been with the portions of the symposium I have been able to attend. I found much wisdom and much inspiration in the papers and the discussion, and I am already thinking of ways I can refocus and reinvigorate my own work and ideas. A thought that occurred to me is that as we translate these predictions of the future into action, we need to be certain that we are really making our museums more meaningful and interesting to our publics , and are not just seeking ways of making them more interesting to those of us who work in them.
I thought about this in the context of the exhibition we have just closed at the National Portrait Gallery, entitled "1846," in which we tried to evoke the characteristics of the United States of America in the year when the Smithsonian was founded. For the past day and a half, all the talk has been about the future. Now, in this magnificent space in the original Smithsonian building, we turn our attention to the past for a moment. Our "1846" exhibition took us "Back to the Future," in a way that has some relevance to our future-thinking. How accurately do you suppose people in the year 1800 could have anticipated the politics, literature, music, science, social issues, expansion of the country to the west and south that characterized the nation in 1846? These events and beliefs shaped the Smithsonian Institution. It would have been a very different place if it had started in 1800. And since 1846 it has changed enormously, as knowledge has changed, as attitudes have changed, and as our views about the place of institutions in society has changed. All this is to say that it is exceedingly difficult to see into the future, just as it is essential to understand how societies and institutions are related. I commend you all for coming together to think about these fundamental questions, and I hope our museums will be better places as a result.
Turning to my assigned duty, I have the honor to introduce our next speaker, the Honorable Jeannine Smith Clark. I am especially glad to do this, since Mrs. Clark is the Chair of my museum's board--the National Portrait Gallery Commission, just one of the positions of responsibility she has held in the Smithsonian Institution. She is a Regent Emeritus of the Smithsonian, not because the Board of Regents grew weary of her presence, but because she served to the last possible day she legally could as a Regent, and has continued to serve on Regents' committees. She attended university at Wisconsin and at Howard, studying German language and literature, English, and African studies. Her connection to the Smithsonian began with volunteer work at Dr. King's Poor People's March on Washington, and she continued as a docent thereafter. Characteristically, she was soon active in docent advisory boards and national organizations.
It is a quality of Jeannine Clark's involvement in the institutions with which she works that she reads position papers and masters the details of budgets, missions, opportunities, and issues. She is an informed and invaluable community leader, and a precious ally--as I can testify. She is a person of outstanding commitment and understanding. She is also great fun to work with, and I treasure my association with her more than I can tell you.
I am very pleased to welcome Jeannine S. Clark, who will give us "Some Reflections on the Board of Regents' First Meeting, on September 7, 1846."
The following is an edited transcription of the proceedings of "Museums for the New Millennium." Do not copy or quote any of this text without the written permission of the speaker.
Thank you, Alan, and Good Afternoon Museumphiles! It is indeed an honor to have been invited by Rex Ellis to participate in this sesquicentennial symposium on the subject of "Museums for the New Millennium". To the members of the staff of the Center for Museum Studies, I extend my sincerest congratulations for the successful coordination and facilitation that has brought us all together - in spite of [Hurricane] Fran's blustering.
On this date 150 years ago, the first Smithsonian Board of Regents' meeting was held in a room of the Post Office Building on F Street, N.W. between 7th and 8th Streets. Thirteen of the fifteen appointed members were present. They were designated by the Act of Smithsonian Organization to be: 3 ex officio members, 3 Senators, 3 members of the House of Representatives, and 6 citizens 2 of whom were to be residents of Washington, DC and 4 residents of 4 different states. I choose to call them the first volunteers of the Smithsonian. They could be reimbursed for necessary traveling and other actual expenses in attending meetings of the Board...."but his service as Regent shall be gratuitous," states the charter, thus creating such an association as Tocqueville referred to in Democracy in America. "I have often admired the extreme skill with which the inhabitants of the United States succeed in proposing a common object for the exertions of a great many men and women and inducing them voluntarily to pursue it."
So important was this work to establish a firm foundation for this Institution, I should like to share their names with you at this time.
The 3 exofficio members were: Vice President of the United States George Mifflin Dallas - PA. Chief Justice Roger Taney - MD and the Mayor of Washington, DC, William W. Seaton.
Appointed by the President of the Senate were: Senators George Evans - Missouri; Isaac S. Pennybacker of Virginia (note: Senator Pennybacker died in January 1847); and Sidney Breese of Illinois. Appointed by the Speaker of the House were: William. J. Hough New York, who drafted the bill signed by President Polk on August 10th, less than one month before that first meeting; Robert Dale Owen of Indiana, whose father and brother shared his passionate interest in the nascent Smithsonian; and Henry W. Hilliard of Alabama, one of the few southerners who voted for the bill which established the Smithsonian.
Six citizen regents appointed by joint resolution were: Rufus Choate, a former U.S. senator from Massachusetts who authored a previously defeated bill for the use of Smithsonian's bequest; Gideon Hawley of New York, state superintendent of public instruction; Richard Rush of Philadelphia, an eminent lawyer, son of the signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, former minister to France and England, and brilliant representative of the U.S. whom President Andrew Jackson appointed to collect Smithson's bequest, $508, 318.46, through the chancery court of London - he did so in less than 2 years (August 29, 1838); and William C. Preston of South Carolina - a former US Senator who had said earlier that "it was not consistent with the dignity of the country" to accept Smithson's gift.
The two residents of Washington, DC were: Alexander Dallas Bache, Head of the US Survey, brilliant physicist, great grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and nephew of Vice President of George Mifflin Dallas; and Joseph G. Totten, Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers.
Only Regent Preston was absent that September 7th when Congressman Hough accepted the position of interim secretary-sans pay. When they met the next day it was in the so called "cooler" Patent Office Building which today, as you know, is the shared site of the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American Art. Vice President Dallas was elected Chancellor. On September 9th the Regents' Building Committee met with President Polk and members of the Establishment i.e. Secretaries of State, War, and the Attorney General for a walking tour of the mall - near the site of what had been the principal slavepens of the district. Regent Owen's first consideration was to ensure that the Smithsonian building would be placed on public ground, the Mall, and not, as the Act allowed, be connected to the Patent Office. Just think, Alan and Betsy, what it would be like to have the Castle as your neighbor instead of the sports arena?
By late September, the Regents Building Committee had visited Philadelphia, Trenton, New York, Boston - Owen even went to Cincinnati - to view buildings while at the same time launching a design competition for the Smithsonian building. December 25th was the official closing date for applications to be submitted. However, after studying 13 architectural plans they had just about agreed by November 30th on the design submitted by the architect of NewYork's Grace Church, James Renwick, Jr.
Continuing at their "Go ahead!" pace, the Regents on Dec. 3, 1846 elected the first Secretary based on an Owen resolution that required a man "possessing weight of character and a high grade of talent." More than two dozen men of widely varying backgrounds and experiences became candidates. Paul Oehser, author of The Smithsonian Institution, viewed their choice as follows: "One of the most fortunate events in the history of American Science was the selection of Professor Joseph Henry of Princeton to fill this important and difficult post. Although he was filled with doubts and releuctant to leave the salubrious life at Princeton, the offer of the Smithsonian Secretaryship was a tremendous challenge. Something inherent in the idealism of the Smithson legacy appealed to him. He served 32 years, 1846-1878 until his death.
As for thoughts of the future I'd like to read a portion of a poem by Solomon G. Brown on the occasion of his 50 years of service under the first three secretaries (during which time he was elected three times to the House of Delegates of the District of Columbia as a result of knowledge he had acquired while working here and his generous leadership of his community. "Fifty Years Today"
The dedication, devotion and determination shown by the 1st Regents, I think, has been exhibited throughout much of the Smithsonian's brief history. "The need for their guidance on policy issues, priorities, and funding strategies requires their participation to the fullest possible extent" states the Report on the Commission on the Future of the Smithsonian Institution. The legacy of that first Board of Regents should inspire all who accept the title.
If this brief description has "tweaked" or evoked your interest in the subject. I sincerely commend to you the National Portrait Gallery's 1846: Portrait of the Nation by Margaret C.S. Christman, Paul Oehser's The Smithsonian Institution or Geoffrey Hellman's "The Smithsonian: "Octopus on the Mall" much of which appeared in The New Yorker.
Thank you for your patient listening.
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