Regents on the part of the Senate have been: Clinton P. William Howard Taft, Charles Evans Hughes, Harlan F. Wheeler, Henry Wilson.Įx officio members (Chief Justice) have been: Roger B. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, James S. Breckenridge, George Bush, Schuyler Colfax, Calvin Coolidge, Charles Curtis, George M. Ex officio members (Vice President) have been: Spiro T. The Regents of the Smithsonian have included distinguished Americans from many walks of life. The office has always been filled by the Chief Justice To the presidency on the death of Zachary Taylor in 1851, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney was chosen in his stead. The office was at first held by the Vice President. By custom the Chief Justice is Chancellor. Of Washington consisted of four members). (Prior to 1970 the category of Citizen Regents not residents Two citizens of the District of Columbia and seven citizens of the several states, no two from the same state. The membership of the Regents consists of the Vice President and the Chief Justice of the United States three members each of the Senate and House of Representatives In fact, however, the Establishment last met in 1877, and control of the Smithsonian has always been exercised by its Board of The Establishment, composed of the President the Vice President the Chief Justice of the United States the secretaries of State, War, Navy, Interior, and Agriculture theĪttorney General and the Postmaster General.
The Act entrusted direction of the Smithsonian to a body called The Smithsonian Institution was created by authority of an Act of Congress approved August 10, 1846. Indexes exist for the period fromġ907 to 1946 and can be useful. Minutes less than 15 years old are closed to researchers. Minutes are transferred regularly from the Secretary's Office to the Archives. Manuscript minutes for the period from 1857 through 1890 and researchers must rely on printed minutes published in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution instead. The minutes are edited, not a verbatim account of proceedings. They are compiled at the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian, who is also secretary to the Board, afterĪpproval by the Regents' Executive Committee and by the Regents themselves. These records are the official minutes of the Board.