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meirman
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:00 am
Post subject: Institute |
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I can't answer Joanne's question but it reminds me of another.
When did the Smithsonian Institute start calling itself the
Smithsonian Institution? I think they deny that they ever called
themselves an institute, but I'm not the only one that remembers that,
am I? 40 or 50 years ago. (Yes, one shouldn't start a sentence with a
number, but it was easier.)
I think it is another case like Smokey the Bear. It has to have been
the Smithsonian because for a long time that was the only institute I
had ever heard of.
s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 20 years
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Joe Taxpayer
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:28 am
Post subject: Re: Institute |
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meirman wrote:
| Quote: | I can't answer Joanne's question but it reminds me of another.
When did the Smithsonian Institute start calling itself the
Smithsonian Institution? I think they deny that they ever called
themselves an institute, but I'm not the only one that remembers that,
am I? 40 or 50 years ago. (Yes, one shouldn't start a sentence with a
number, but it was easier.)
I think it is another case like Smokey the Bear. It has to have been
the Smithsonian because for a long time that was the only institute I
had ever heard of.
s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 20 years
|
Thanks, for the last hour I've been mumbling "Smithsonian Institute",
"Smithsonian Institution", "Smithsonian Institute", "Smithsonian
Institution"......
I don't think I've ever heard in called "Smithsonian Institution",
"Institute" is ingrained in my brain......
JOE |
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Daniel James
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:11 pm
Post subject: Re: Institute |
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In article news:<npp3l0lvtce44d0mlg7c3dsgnj9mks547l@4ax.com>, Meirman wrote:
| Quote: | When did the Smithsonian Institute start calling itself the
Smithsonian Institution?
|
1846, according to http://www.si.edu/about/history.htm
That is, James Smithson called the "Smithsonian Institution" in his
will of 1826, and the institution was actually founded -- and therefore
in a position to call itself something (rather than being called something
by someone else) in 1846.
It's an interesting story. Smithson was the illegitimate son of Hugh
Smithson, Duke of Northumberland at a time when illegitimacy carried
real social stigma. He had money from his mother, a widow -- who would
today be called a 'minor royal' -- and a good education. He attended
Pembroke College Oxford (see
http://www.pembroke.ox.ac.uk/pembroke_college/famousalumni_smithson.html)
and became a notable student of sciences. In his will he left all his wealth
to his nephew with the provision that, should his nephew die without heir,
the estate should go to found the institution that bears his name.
His actual motives for doing that remain unknown -- but the story told at
Pembroke (where there is a plaque in his memory set into the wall of the
main quadrangle - which provides ample opportunities for retelling the tale
with advantage) is that he hated his family, and the customs of the country
that made his illegitimacy socially unacceptable, so much that he wanted to
make sure that his estate would not benefit any of them.
Cheers,
Daniel.
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Richard Yates
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2004 10:30 pm
Post subject: Re: Institute |
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| Quote: | When did the Smithsonian Institute start calling itself the
Smithsonian Institution?
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Reminds me of OHSU ('Oregon Health Science University') in Portland. At some
undetermined point in the last few years it became 'Oregon Health & Science
University'.
Richard Yates |
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