The Great Design: Two Lectures on the Smithson Bequest . . . Edited, with an Introduction, by Wilcomb E. Washburn. Foreword by L.H. Butterfield. by [Smithson, James (c.1765-1829)] ADAMS, John Quincy (1767-1848) - 1965

Washington:: Smithsonian Institution, 1965., 1965. Series: Smithsonian Publication No. 4643. 8vo. 95 pp. Two color title (printed in sienna and black), plates. Quarter navy cloth with marbled paper sides, gilt-stamped spine title, dust-jacket; jacket chipped. Burndy bookplate. Very good. English scientist James Smithson (born as an illegitimate child in France) gave the bequest that became the Smithsonian Institution. His zeal as a collector of mineral specimens, led to his wanting to benefit science. Adams, of course, was the sixth President of the United States. The editor, Wilcomb E. Washburn (1925-1997), was one of America's most versatile and accomplished historians, receiving his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his Ph.D. (in American Civilization) from Harvard University in 1955. / He taught at Wm & Mary College in Williamsburg for 3 years and at the American and George Washington Universities. / In 1958, he became Director of American Studies at the Smithsonian Institution. And in 1965, he became Chairman of the Department of American Studies at the Smithsonian. [Virginia History Series].