The stranger and the statesman : James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the making of America's greatest museum, The Smithsonian / Nina Burleigh.

New York : William Morrow, [2003], ©2003.

298 pages ; 22 cm

1st ed.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-298).

Acknowledgments -- 1. The body snatchers -- 2. The duke and the widow -- 3. Nobody's child -- 4. Choosing science -- 5. Discoveries and revolutions -- 6. The gift -- 7. 105 sacks of gold -- 8. "A rattlesnake's fang" -- 9. For the increase and diffusion of knowledge -- 10. The Smithson mystery -- Notes -- Bibliography.