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Remarkable Leaders

There are many individuals who have made a difference in the life of the Smithsonian Institution. The figures chosen here to represent the new membership levels of the James Smithson Society—S. Dillon Ripley, Samuel P. Langley, Joseph Henry, and John Quincy Adams—were all exceptional leaders in the history of the Institution.

S. Dillon Ripley (1913–2001)

S. Dillon Ripley served as the eighth Secretary of the Smithsonian, from 1964 to 1984, presiding over its greatest period of growth and an era of immense social change. As an ornithologist and as the former director of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, Ripley had an abiding interest in the scientific work of the Smithsonian. He was also deeply committed to expanding the Institution’s arts and culture presence.

Ripley created a large number of new museums, some of them in important historic buildings renovated and restored for the purpose, others in striking modern buildings: the National Air and Space Museum, the Anacostia Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Museum of African Art, the Renwick Gallery, and the Sackler Gallery. Greatly expanding the Institution’s research programs and facilities, he founded the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the Museum Conservation Institute, the Museum Support Center, and the Smithsonian Marine Station, and oversaw the transfer of the Archives of American Art to the SI. He created a Smithsonian office devoted to elementary and secondary education, now the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Programs, and the Office of Fellowships to encourage visiting researchers and interns.

Ripley enlivened the National Mall with the creation of an annual Festival of American Folklife, historic gardens surrounding Smithsonian buildings, and a carousel for visitors to enjoy. During the Poor People’s Campaign and anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s, he kept the museums’ doors open, encouraging new visitorship from a broad spectrum of Americans. He sought to engage a national audience through the creation of The Smithsonian Associates and the Smithsonian magazine, and the James Smithson Society and the Contributing Membership.

Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834–1906)

Samuel Pierpont Langley, a prominent astrophysicist and pioneer of flight, became the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1887 and held that post until his death. His method of distributing accurate time to railroads is credited with inspiring our modern system of time zones.

In 1890 Langley established the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), which was initially dedicated primarily to studies of the sun, a field in which Langley excelled. Today the SAO is jointly run with Harvard University, to form the world-famous Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Fascinated by flight since childhood, Langley began his own aeronautical experiments in 1887. In the spring of 1896 Smithsonian workmen launched one of Langley’s unpiloted, steam-powered model Aerodromes on a flight of over one-half mile—the first relatively large, powered, heavier-than-air craft to achieve such a feat. That flight was photographed by Alexander Graham Bell, a patron of Langley’s and a Regent of the Smithsonian. Langley’s work has been memorialized numerous times, most notably Langley Air Force Base.

As Secretary, Langley presided over the establishment of the National Zoo, opened negotiations leading to the establishment of the Freer Gallery of Art, broke ground for the natural history museum, and encouraged the public educational functions of the institution. He took special pride in the creation of a “Children’s Room,” an area of the Smithsonian Castle designed to spark the curiosity of young visitors. “Knowledge,” read the sign over the entrance, “begins in wonder.”

Joseph Henry (1797–1878)

Joseph Henry was the first secretary of the Smithsonian, serving from its founding in 1846 to his death in 1878. The most noted physicist in the U.S., Henry was a professor at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), known for his research on electricity and electromagnetic induction. The “henry,” the standard unit of inductance, is named after him.

It was left to Henry to shape the new Smithsonian Institution—given James Smithson’s vague mandate for “the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” and a broad legislative mandate, the result of a decade of Congressional debates over what the new Smithsonian should be. Henry prepared a “Programme of Organization” for the fledgling institution, which focused its energies on scientific research above all. He was wary of the responsibilities of curating the national museum, a function he believed would drain the Smithson endowment, and so he convinced the Congress to begin supporting the national collections with an annual appropriation in 1858. He also established a national network of weather observers, a pioneering meteorological project that led to the creation of the National Weather Service. Equally important was Henry’s stewardship of the Smithson endowment. Henry established the principle that the principal of the endowment would never be used, and annually plowed interest back into the endowment. His careful stewardship of the institution’s resources helped set the Smithsonian on a successful course.

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848)

Much of his education took place abroad, as he accompanied his diplomat father, the future President John Adams. These cosmopolitan travels and experiences gave him a profound appreciation for the ideals behind Smithson’s bequest. As President he had campaigned for the establishment of a national university, the sponsorship of scientific expeditions, and the creation of an astronomical observatory. A near exact contemporary of Smithson, he made it his responsibility to ensure that the gift was accepted and used well. He believed it “signalized the spirit of the age.” Yet he worried that charlatans were lobbying to gain control of Smithson’s largesse, so he maintained public pressure on the Congress to act responsibly. In November 1839, Adams delivered two lectures on the bequest in Boston that were widely printed and very influential.

As the debate over the bequest dragged on in Congress for nearly a decade, Adams stood guard, insuring that the matter was not tabled or disposed of improperly. When the final legislation was formulated in 1846, much of the structure Adams suggested was included. Without his diligent oversight, the Smithsonian might never have come into existence.

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