Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), established on August 10, 1846 "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge," is a group of museums and research centers administered by the Government of the United States. The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. Originally organized as the "United States National Museum," that name ceased to exist as an administrative entity in 1967. Termed "the nation's attic" for its eclectic holdings of 154 million items, the Institution's nineteen museums, nine research centers, and zoo include historical and architectural landmarks, mostly located in the District of Columbia. Additional
Conservation and restoration at the Smithsonian Institution effort to conserve species and train future generations of conservationists. Ecological processes are highly complex... life and the world are dynamic and ever-changing—it is only with long-term records that many [biological] trends can be deciphered. The SCBI is the only unit of the Smithsonian Institution exclusively devoted to the study of wildlife conservation. Giant pandas, Asian elephants, white-naped cranes, western lowland gorillas, Sumatran tigers, cheetahs, and North Island brown kiwis. Global Tiger Initiative At the National Museum of Natural History, the Anthropology Conservation Laboratory (ACL) conducts conservation on the National Museum of Natural history's more than 126 million natural science