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William C. Preston
George Peter Alexander Healy (born Boston, MA 1813-died Chicago, IL 1894)
1842
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 36 x 29 in. (91.4 x 73.6 cm)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Institute
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
William Preston of South Carolina was one of several senators who nearly derailed the founding of the Smithsonian Institution. James Smithson, illegitimate son of England’s Duke of Northumberland, was a noted natural scientist. His considerable fortune went to the United States government in 1835 "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Like many of his fellow senators, William Preston argued against accepting Smithson’s gift, insisting that the United States should not take such a substantial amount of money from an English aristocrat. Preston was won over, however, and, with President Andrew Jackson's support, Congress voted to accept the bequest from Smithson.Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006
