barry's latest work of historical fiction the lost order takes place here richard stamm is author of the castle and illustrated history of the smithsonian building. we met our tour guides inside the crypt of the institutions founder james smithson. this is abou40

barry's latest work of historical fiction the lost order takes place here richard stamm is author ofhe castle and illustrated history of the smithsonian building. we met our tour guides inside the crypt of the institutions founder james smithson. this is about 40 minutes. and i'm steve berry and i'm here today with rick sam rick is the curator of the smithsonian castle. he has a really cool job. he looks after all the stuff inside this building when we all like to have that it's really neat. we're in right now in a really interesting place though. it's kind of where it all started the smithsonian started by a man named james smithson who was kind of an innocuous british chemist. there was nothing magical about him whatsoever. he was just a guy had an interest in science at the time, but he died and he had 500,000 when he died and he left it to his nephew now if his nephew and married and had some kids life would have been great. he had kept the money, but he didn't he died childless and the provision of the will said that the money would then go to washington dc to found the smithson