Word: mineralogist
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...SMITHSONIAN By James Conaway (Knopf; $60). This handsome volume commemorates the Smithsonian Institution's 150th anniversary. Ironically, the Smithsonian was founded with a financial gift from an Englishman who never set foot in the States. James Smithson was a noted mineralogist who, stung by the Royal Society's refusal to publish his scientific papers, bequeathed the U.S. government £100,000 to build "an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge." Today its trove ranges from the Wright brothers' airplane to a prototype of the Apple personal computer...