The Lost World of James Smithson

by Heather Ewing

  54 Archivio di Stato di Napoli, Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Legazione del Governo Inglese a Napoli; 673 covers 1789–90, and 674 covers 1795–7.

  55 Dr. Drew to Lady Webster, January 25, 1794. BL Add MS 51814, f. 13.

  56 Thomas Brand to Lady Webster, December 21, 1793; BL Add MS 51845, ff. 59–60.

  57 Macie to Greville, January 1, 1792; BL Add MS 41199, f 82.

  58 Entry for Sir William Hamilton in John Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701–1800 (Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 456–60.

  59 Smithson published his analysis in "On a Saline Substance from Mount Vesuvius," Philosophical Transactions 103 (1813), p. 257.

  60 Smithson's mineral notes; SIA, RU 7000, Box 2. There is also one exemplar, a specimen of potassium sulfate found on Vesuvius, which Smithson gave to Haüy in Paris and forms part of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle's collection today. Haüy's catalogue does not clarify whether Smithson found the specimen himself, or whether it was in his collection because it had been sent to him or he had purchased it.

  61 Baron Muller to John Parish, Naples, March 12, 1804; Parish Family Archives, Hamburg Staatsarchiv, microfilm copy (Z Filmes 6655) of material deposited in Prague.

  62 James Smithson, "Some Observations on Mr. Penn's Theory Concerning the Formation of the Kirkdale Cave," Annals of Philosophy 24 (1824).

  63 The Hon. H. A. Wyndham, A Family History, 1688–1837: The Wyndhams of Somerset, Sussex and Wiltshire (London, 1950), pp. 261–80.

  64 Michael Rocke, Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence (Oxford, 1996), p. 3.

  65 For Wycombe's comments on marriage see Wycombe to Holland, Lausanne, November 2, 1796; BL Add MS 58613, ff. 43–6. See also entry for William Frederick Wyndham in Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, pp. 1028–9. The Journal of Lady Holland, vol. 1, p. 117.

  66 Earl Macartney to George L. Staunton, December 20, 1795; quoted in George T. Staunton, Memoir of the Life and Family of Sir G. L. Staunton (Havant, 1823), pp. 357–9. Entry for Wyndham in Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, pp. 1028–9. Partial letter from Lord Wycombe to Lord Holland, dated c. October 23 to November 16, 1791; BL Add MS 58613, ff. 27–8.

  67 He served in this position for other English aristocrats as well, including even the powerful patron the Earl-Bishop, Lord Bristol (father of John Augustus Hervey). In July 1794 Smithson provided Bristol with an introduction to the Sienese anatomist Paolo Mascagni, an expert on the Lagoni. Macie to Mascagni, July 7, 1794; Archivio Paolo Mascagni, filza 3a, carteggio 36, Accademia dei Fisiocritici, Siena, Italy.

  68 Back in London after this trip Smithson wrote to Lady Holland, "I will certainly take the first opportunity of paying my respects to you, and will, with much readiness & pleasure, give any aid in my power towards the arrangement of your collection of minerals." May 1, n.y. [1801]; BL Add MS 51846, ff. 104–5. Lord Holland's poem entitled "To L.y W: 25th March 1795 Florence" is located in Holland Papers, BL Add MS 51730, ff. 1–3, 5–7.

  69 Poem of March 25, 1831, in Holland Papers, BL Add MS 51730, ff. 61–2.

  70 Giovanni Fabbroni, Di una Singolarissima Specie di Mattoni (Florence, 1794).

  71 Macie to Fabbroni, no date [c. 1794]; APS B F113.

  72 Milady Vassall (Lady Webster, soon to be Lady Holland) to Giovanni Fabbroni, March 27, 1797; APS B F113. Fabbroni to Milady Vassall, May 8, 1797. BL Add MS 51845, ff. 114–15.

  73 Francis Russell, "Notes on Grand Tour portraiture," The Burlington Magazine 136 (July 1994), p. 443.

  74 Louis Gauffier, "Portrait of a Young Gentleman, Florence, 1796," was published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (May 1926). It was listed then as part of the Prince Koudacheff collection [Sergei Vladimirovich Koudacheff 1863–1933]; its current whereabouts are unknown. It is probably a small cabinet-size picture and thus unlikely if it is Smithson to be the large oil painting that Smithson gave Mrs. Marriot, which remains unidentified.

  75 Sir William Hamilton, "An account of the late eruption of Mount Vesuvius," Philosophical Transactions 85 (1795), pp. 73–116.

  76 Pictet printed a description of Thomson's finds in Bibliotheque Britannique, t. 4, no. 2 (February 1797), pp. 128–35, as a follow-up to the publication of his original article ('Notices d'un Voyageur Anglais …") in t. 1. Smithson lists the "Crust from the Church bells of Torre del Greco formed by the lava in 1794" in his mineral catalogue. The original list from Thomson, entitled "Sent to Mr Macie [Via] Dr. Robertson Nov.r 22[17]96" exists still among Smithson's papers. SIA, RU 7000, Box 2.

  77 Massimiliano Ricca, Discorso sopra le opere del Soldani (Siena, 1810), pp. 14–15. I have drawn from Ricca as well as two other contemporary accounts, Ambrogio Soldani, Sopra una pioggetta di sassi … (1794) and Domenico Tata, Memoria sulla pioggia dipietre … (1794), for this discussion. I have also relied heavily on the excellent survey of the early history of meteoritics by Ursula B. Marvin, "Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (1756–1827) and the origins of modern meteorite research," Meteoritics & Planetary Science 31 (1996), pp. 545–88. I am very grateful, too, to Dr. Roy S. Clarke for his help and insights in examining Smithson's meteorite interests.

  78 Drew to Lady Webster, n.d. [c. June-July 5, 1797], BL Add MS 51814, ff. 37–8. Smithson seems to have remained curious about the different theories regarding the origins of meteorites; he marked the page in his copy of La Métherie's Lecons de Mineralogie (1812), vol. 2, p. 554, that discusses a number of possible explanations. Smithson Library, SIL.

  79 Bulletin of the Proceedings of the National Institute, July 12, 1841. Quoted in a typescript made for Rathbun; SIA RU 7078, Box 11.

  80 From Peter Pallas, Smithson obtained a specimen of "Molybdena in Quartz from Ghutai near Salengha towards the Chinese frontiers." Mineral catalogue notes, SIA, RU 7000, Box 2.

  81 Ursula B. Marvin, "The Meteorite of Ensisheim: 1492 to 1992," Meteoritics 27 (1992), pp. 28–72.

  82 The Danish scientist Peter Christian Abildgaard wrote to Giovanni Fabbroni from Venice in July 1794, to announce his acquaintance with the "very interesting and very learned" Mr. Macie; Abildgaard to Fabbroni, July 26, 1794; APS B F113.

  83 Petrini to Fabbroni, March 28, 1795; APS B F113.

  84 Smithson appears to have written one paltry letter to Thomson in September 1793, two months after his arrival in Florence, but even then he neglected to supply any clear indication of his travel plans; Thomson to OTT, October 8, 1793. Thomson wrote again three weeks later asking again for news; Thomson to OTT, October 29, 1793. OTT 73, BNCF.

  85 Smithson to unknown [probably Massimiliano Ricca or Giorgio Santi], September 4, 1804. Autografi Porri 36/15, Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena. Smithson made numerous efforts to recover his case of books. In addition to asking this correspondent to look into it, Smithson also hoped Mrs. Wyndham, if she were still in Italy, could make inquiries. Smithson to Holland, December 3, 1801; BL Add MS 51822, ff. 54–5.

  86 James J. Sheehan, "What is German History? Reflections on the Role of the Nation in German History and Histiography," Journal of Modem History 53 (1981), p. 1. David Blackbourn, The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780–1918 (Oxford, 1998), p. 9.

  87 Milady Vassall to Fabbroni, March 27, 1797; APS B F113.

  88 Richard Chenevix in Dresden to Sir Joseph Banks, June 24 [1804]; DTC, vol. 14, ff. 285–8.

  89 Review of Sketches and Observations made on a tour through various parts of Europe, 1792–4 (London: 1797), printed in the Monthly Review, September 1797, p. 23; Smithson Library, SIL.

  90 W. V. Farrar, "Science and the German University System, 1790–1850," in Maurice P. Crosland, ed., The Emergence of Science in Western Europe (New York, 1976), pp. 179–80.

  91 Smithson's mineral catalogue notes are bound in J. R. McD. Irby, 1879; the slag from the copper works is listed on page 20. Smithson conducted experiments on the specimen in Paris on August 4, 1819. SIA, RU 7000, Box 2.

&
nbsp; 92 For a discussion of German science in this period see Karl Hufbauer, The Formation of the German Chemical Community, 1720–1795 (Berkeley and London, c. 1982); see also Ernst Homburg, "Two factions, one profession: the chemical profession in Germany society 1780–1870," in The Making of the Chemist: The Social History of Chemistry in Europe, 1789– 1914, David Knight and Helge Krath, eds (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 39–76. There is a very extensive two-volume mineral catalogue in German that forms part of the Smithson Collection at the SIA; there does not appear to be any indication of who amassed the collection or how Smithson attained a copy of the catalogue. It is possible that he purchased the collection, which seems to be entirely a regional one, while on this trip—as part of his efforts to amass representative specimens of particular regions.

  93 Many travelers also made a point of stopping to pay their respects to Goethe, installed at Weimar. Goethe's interests in mineralogy made him an especially appealing stop for natural philosophers. See for example, Hugh S. Torrens, "Geology in Peace Time: An English visit to study German mineralogy and geology (and visit Goethe, Werner, and Raumer) in 1816," in Bernhard Fritscher and Fergus Henderson, eds, Toward a History of Mineralogy, Petrology, and Geochemistry (Munich, 1998), pp. 147–75. Smithson, however, does not seem to have paid a visit, as there is no record of his presence in the very complete archive in Weimar; correspondence with the Goethe-und-Schiller-Archiv, October 2001.

  94 Smithson's mineral notes; SIA, RU 7000, Box 2. Many thanks to Paul Pohwat for his help.

  95 Lady Holland to OTT, January 9, n.y. [c. 1798]; OTT 76/81, BCNF. OTT to Lady Holland, August 11, 1798; BL Add MS 51845, ff. 46–7.

  96 Duchess of Newcastle Papers, BL Add MS 33082. Woodcock Partnership Accounts, Dawson's, Lincoln's Inn Fields.

  97 James Louis Macie to Sir Joseph Banks, May 14, 1796. BL Add. MS 33980, f. 64.

  98 James Macie to Ottaviano Targioni-Tozzetti, September 11, 1798; OTT 75, vol. 2, BNCF.

  99 Smithson's 1797 Catalogue of Fossils manuscript lists several Klaproth donations; SIA, RU 7000, Box 2.

  100 Lord Wycombe to Lord Lansdowne, August 22 and also September 7, 1796; Bowood Muniments, Microfilm 2030, Bodleian Library. Alexander Douglas of Kelso was the person who was permitted to pass through France with his sickly wife; he reproduced the cordial exchange of letters between him and the French government in his book Notes of a Journey from Berne to England through France made in the year 1796 by A.D. (Kelso, n.d.); printed in De Beer, The Sciences Were Never at War (London, 1960), pp. 69–72.

  101 On September 4, 1804, Smithson wrote to an Italian friend, "I am now in this country waiting for the taking of Holland, or some other event which shall make it possible for me to return to England without going the wild and endlessly-circuitous road of Embden; equally terrible in the part which is land and the part which is sea." Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena; Autographi Porri, 36/15. On November 22, 1805, he wrote to Lord Holland, "Having waited for the capture of Holland, to avoid the circuitous passage by the pole, I now expect to be soon at home." BL Add MS 51823, ff. 258–9. And on July 26, 1806, he told Cuvier, "Une santé faible me fait préférér d'attendre en Allemagne a m'exposer au rude et desagréable retour chez moi par la mer du Nord, auquel j'ai une fois au paravant été forcé de m'exposer." L'Institut de France, Fonds Cuvier, No. 3228, item 27.

  7. London: Citizen of the World, 1797–1803

  1 Milady Vassall to Fabbroni, March 27, 1797; APS B F113. When Smithson visited, the trial over her separation from Lord Webster had just been successfully concluded, and she had begun using her maiden name Vassall. The letter to Fabbroni announcing the arrival of Smithson is signed "Milady Vassall." A misreading of this name has mistakenly led to a proposed connection between Smithson and the Italian Turin-based scientist Anton Vassalli-Eandi.

  2 Florence for Lady Holland was "that lovely spot, where I enjoyed a degree of happiness for a whole year that was too exquisite to be permanent." Lady Holland's Journal, vol. 1; quoted in John Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701–1800 (New Haven and London, 1997), p. 986.

  3 Edward Wedlake Brayley, A Topographical and Historical Description of London and Middlesex (London, 1820), vol. 1, p. 565.

  4 Lord Holland in Prague to Fabbroni, May 14, 1796; APS B F113.

  5 Hoare's bank ledgers, vol. 51 (1794–1796), f. 340.

  6 Entry for Randle Wilbraham in Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers, p. 999.

  7 Kirwan to Banks, April 9, 1797; DTC, vol. 1, pp. 119–21. Smithson had at least one mishap on the Continent, because when back in London he reclaimed £200 from Ransom & Co. "for Circular Notes lost." Hoare's, entry for May 15, 1797; vol. 51 (1794–1797), f. 340.

  8 Smithson, "Catalogue of Fossils 1797," transcribed in J. R. Mc D. Irby, "Notes on Minerals and Rocks by James Smithson Esq. F.R.S. Being the whole of his manuscripts which escaped the fire at the Smithsonian Institution, 1865," 1878; SIA, RU 7000, Box 2. Abildgaard's list and Thomson's list (which is unsigned but clearly in his hand) are also in RU 7000, Box 2. Smithson met Abildgaard in Venice in July 1794; Abildgaard to Fabbroni, Venice, July 26, 1794. APS B F113.

  9 James Macie to Ottaviano Targioni-Tozzetti, September 11, 1798; Ottaviano Targioni-Tozzetti Papers (OTT) 75, vol. 2; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze (BNCF).

  10 Gentleman's Magazine (1794), pp. 1060–61.

  11 Macie to Holland, June 20, 1797; BL Add MS 51821, f. 47.

  12 Margaret Marriott specified the return of these pictures to Smithson in her will, which she made in 1821; she died in 1827; TNA: PRO PROB 11/1733. The small picture might well be the 1816 Aix-la-Chapelle portrait that the Smithsonian acquired from the La Batuts in the late nineteenth century, now in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The "very large" picture is still unidentified.

  13 George Keate, An Account of the Pelew Islands, Karen L. Nero and Nicholas Thomas, eds (London and New York, 2002), p. 263.

  14 "They [the two girls] both died of consumptions & their mother had their fortunes (w.ch were very handsome) devoted to charitable uses, after having in vain endeavoured to prevail on Lady Beverly to take y.m under her Protection & bring them forward, w.ch she declined as the Duke had never intimated any Desire on that subject, but rather kept their birth secret nor had the Duke ever allowed them to take the name of Percy in his lifetime." Alnwick MSS, vol. 57, 23/1 (Letters 1789–95).

  15 Dorothy Percy's will of April 1, 1794, with October 22 codicil, proved December 8, 1794 by Margaret Marriott; TNA: PRO PROB 11/1263.

  16 Smithson signed two letters, both written c. July-August 1797, from Elm Grove near Mortlake; BL Add MS 51821, f. 22, and BL Add MS 51845, f. 108.

  17 The ledgers at Hoare's record a payment of £7 0 to Christie & Co. on May 12, 1797. A person identified as "M" made purchases totaling £69.13 in Christie's sale of May 1–2. Although "M" can not be conclusively attributed to Macie, if one factors in delivery and other charges the total and the dates make a strong case. "A Catalogue of all the Elegant Household Furniture … of a Gentleman, which will be Sold by Auction by Messrs. Christie, Sharp, and Harper, on the Premises, At the Entrance of Kingston upon Thames, in the county of Surry [sic], on Monday, May 1st, 1797, and following Day, at Twelve o'clock." Christie's Archives, London. Thanks to Jeremy Rex-Parkes for this information.

  18 James Macie to Lady Holland, February 5 and February 22, n.y. [1799 or 1800]; BL Add MS 51845, ff. 51–2, 53–4. The identification of the names of tradesmen from Smithson's Hoare's ledgers was made with the aid of directories like the British Directory of 1793, the databases of the Centre for Metropolitan History at the Institute for Historical Research, and Celina Fox, ed., London: World City 1800–1840 (New Haven and London, 1992).

  19 Lord Holland, Further Memoirs of the Whig Party (London, 1905), p. 371; quoted in C. J. Wright, "Holland House and the Fashionable Pursuit of Science," Journal of the History of Collections 1, no. 1 (1989), pp. 97–102.

  20 H
.M.S., "Fox Elizabeth Vassall, Lady Holland (1770–1845)": Dictionary of National Biography, Leslie Stephens, ed. (London, 1885–1904).

  21 James Macie to Lord Holland, June 20, 1797; BL Add MS 51821, f. 47. Lawrence S. Rowland, Alexander Moore and George C. Rogers, The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina: Volume I, 1514– 1861 (University of South Carolina Press, 1996), p. 161.

  22 While Smithson was writing of "the excellence of his moral character," Joseph Allen Smith was actually in Europe, and he spent some of 1797 carousing in Ireland with Smithson's friend Lord Wycombe. Wycombe and Smith were both enamored of the Irish revolutionary cause, but they ended up devoting much of their time to conquering the dark Irish beauties; Wycombe called Smith "the Lothario of Carolina," and they both managed to get "Poxed" in the process. Wycombe to Holland, n.d. and October 20, 1797, BL Add MSS 58613, ff. 113–14, 119–20. See also George C. Rogers, Jr., Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758–1812), (Columbia, 1962), pp. 338–40; R. A. McNeal, "Joseph Allen Smith, American Grand Tourist," International Journal of the Classical Tradition, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 64–91; and E. P. Richardson, "Allen Smith, Collector and Benefactor," American Art Journal (Fall 1969), vol. 1, no. 2.

  23 Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution; quoted in George Gordon Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (Philadelphia, 1870), p. 76.

  24 Quoted in Isaac Kramnick, "Eighteenth-Century Science and Radical Social Theory: The Case of Joseph Priestley's Scientific Liberalism," Journal of British Studies 25 (January 1986), pp. 1–30.

  25 Quoted in Dumas Malone, Jefferson and the Rights of Man (Boston, 1951), p. 85; see also Isaac Kramnick, Republicanism and Bourgeois Radicalism: Political Ideology in Late Eighteenth-Century England and America (Cornell, 1990), p. 69.