James Smithson Carte de Visite back (Smithsonian Institution Archives)

ASSOCIATED PERSON:
Smithson, James
MEASUREMENTS:
overall: 3 1/8 in x 1 in; 7.9375 cm x 2.54 cm
OBJECT NAME:
calling card
DATE MADE:
ca 1826
DESCRIPTION:
The National Institute for the Promotion of Science acquired James Smithson’s personal effects, displaying them in the National Gallery of the Patent Office beginning in 1842. There, John Varden, the collection’s keeper, apparently helped himself to a supply of Smithson’s calling cards. Varden gave this one to Caleb Bentley, a Quaker silversmith, shopkeeper, and postmaster of Brookeville, Maryland—and a contributor to Varden’s Washington Museum. Varden’s gift to Bentley went unrecorded until 1892, when the card came back to theSmithsonian with an inscription that noted its diversion.
Bequest of James Smithson, 1829
SUBJECT:
Government, Politics, and Reform
Souvenir Nation
ID NUMBER:
2011.0036.01
ACCESSION NUMBER:
2011.0036
CATALOG NUMBER:
2011.0036.01
SEE MORE ITEMS IN:
Political History: Political History, General History Collection
Souvenir Nation
EXHIBITION:
Souvenir Nation
DATA SOURCE:
National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center