THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION is the result of the philanthropy of an Englishman, James Smithson, a younger son of the Duke of Northumberland, who in 1829 bequeathed a fortune of over $500,000 to the United States to found an institution at Washington for the increase of knowledge." The fund now amounts to ever a million. The building was designed by Renwick, architect of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.