NewMexiKen has often wondered whether we’d have the national museums if James Smithson hadn’t bequeathed his estate “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men.”
That’s the Smithsonian Institution Building, popularly called The Castle, designed by James Renwick Jr. and completed in 1855. The statue in front is of Joseph Henry, the first director.
Photo taken Sunday evening.