Heather Ewing, the author of The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian, was the featured USC Libraries Literary Luncheon speaker on March 12. In this clip, recorded in the Hancock Memorial Museum at USC, she speculates about why Smithson left his fortune to the government of a country he never visited.
Upon his death in 1829, Smithson left his fortune of $500,000 to the U.S. government in order to found an institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." For Smithson and other Enlightenment scientists and philosophers, America's democratic ideals held a special promise.
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