with smithson. alexander graham bell was not so foolish to be photographed with smithson's skull. anyway, there was a competition to build a monument to smithson. for a very brief moment at the beginning of the 20th century, we nearly elevated smithson to a founding father. this monument on the left would have been the size of the lincoln memorial. in the end, the smithsonian took the original sarcophagus from the cemetery in italy and installed it in what they called the crypt, which is today in the capital building so you can go visit him. he lies here mostly again forgotten, but his name in the form of the smithsonian is one of the most famous we have, obviously. this open nature of the bequest i mentioned earlier meant in a way that smithson's gift could become almost anything it needed to be. in the 170 plus years since the founding, this missoni and has grown in many, many direction -- the smithsonian has grown in many directions. i want to fly through more of the american treasure house objects, like thomas jefferson's desk that he wrote the declaration of independence on.

ewing is the author of, "the lost world of james smithson."his event was hosted by the maryland historical society. mark: so, for tonight's lecture, exploring the world of james smithson, smithsonian's founder, is being presented by heather ewing. heather ewing is a graduate of yale university and the institute of art in london. she is currently a research associate of the smithsonian, where she once worked as an architectural historian and is the author of a number of books on the architecture and history of the institution. from 2013 to 2018, she was the executive director of the center of italian modern art in new york and has worked, as well,

this is a nurse, isabel smithson, she is 2a, she was in the supermarket and she has used her nhs cardtly so, to get in a queue and behind her somebody was standing there and actually when she was trying to pay will he insisted on paying it for her. she had a bill of £56. and he refused to let her give it back to him. a lovely gesture as well. there she is, on duty with a little baby. it is nice. those of the back pages talk about this story sally was mentioning in her sport headlines, all about newcastle united. they have agreed in principle to sell 300 million to saudi arabia backed consortium. i think it is the best headline i have seen so far. that is something sally will talk about later today. shall be talk about blossom a little later on? we live in very strange times. things are still happening, spring in very strange times. things are still happening, spring is still springing and there is some beautiful blossom. we both have pictures of blossom on our phones. it is so stunning. i think we are thinking about different things that we will talk about blossom a little later. this