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The Smithsonian Institution is a museum complex with most of its facilities in Washington D.C.. It consists of 16 museums, 7 research centers and 142 million items in its collections.
A monthly magazine published by the Smithsonian Institution is also named Smithsonian.
The Smithsonian Institution was founded for the promotion and dissemination of knowledge by a bequest to the United States by James Smithson ( 1765- 1829). In James Smithson's will, he stated that should his nephew, Henry James Hungerford , die without heirs, the Smithson estate would go to the United States of America for establishing an institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men". After the nephew died without heirs in 1835, President Andrew Jackson informed Congress of the bequest, which amounted to 100,000 gold sovereigns, or $500,000 U.S. dollars ($8,790,303 in current 2004 U.S. dollars after inflation). Eight years later, Congress passed an act establishing the Smithsonian Institution and the act was signed into law on August 10, 1846 by James Polk. The Smithsonian Institution is established as a trustIn common law legal systems, a trust is a relationship in which a person or entity (the trustee has legal control over certain property (the trust property or trust corpus , but is bound by fiduciary duty to exercise that legal control for the benefit of administered by a secretary and board of regents. The nominal head of the institute is the ChancellorChancellor ( Latin: cancellarius , an official title used by most of the peoples whose civilization has arisen directly or indirectly out of the Roman empire. At different times and in different countries it has stood and stands for very various duties, a, an office which has always been held by the current Chief Justice of the United StatesThe Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the Judicial Branch of the government of the United States, and presides over the Supreme Court of the United States. The office is often incorrectly referred to as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.. Serving as a member of the board of regents is one of the very few official legal duties of the Vice President of the United StatesThe Vice President of the United States is the second-highest executive official of the United States government, the person who is "a heartbeat from the presidency. As first in the presidential line of succession, the Vice President becomes the new Presi.
The Information Center in the central complex has architecture reminiscent of a castle and is known informally as "The Castle". Many of the other buildings are landmarks and feature other distinctive architectural styles.
The asteroidAn asteroid is a small, solid object in our Solar System, orbiting the Sun. An asteroid is an example of a minor planet (or planetoid , which are much smaller than planets. The asteroids are believed to be remnants of the protoplanetary disc which were no 3773 Smithsonian3773 Smithsonian is a small main belt asteroid. It was discovered by astronomers at the Oak Ridge Observatory in 1984. It is named in honour of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum complex in Washington D. Asteroids. is named in honor of the institution