![The Smithsonian Institution's first building, known as the Castle, was completed in 1855. [Credit: © Stanford Apseloff with permission of the Smithsonian Institution]](http://images.bookrags.com/images/eb/83207.gif)
The Smithsonian Institution's first building, known as the Castle, was completed in 1855. [Credit: © Stanford Apseloff with permission of the Smithsonian Institution]Research institution founded by the bequest of the English scientist James Smithson. Although it was held by John C. Calhoun and other members of Congress that the federal government had no power to accept such a gift, it was finally secured, largely through the efforts of John Quincy Adams, and in 1846 the institution was established by congressional act at Washington, D.C.
[Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]" width="400" height="221">Smithsonian Institution, 1849. [Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]
