CHAPTER X A COLLECTOR AND HIS MUSEUM: WILLIAM LOUIS ABBOTT ( 1860 - 1936 ) AND THE SMITHSONIAN Paul Michael Taylor Introduction : A Meeting Postponed When Smithsonian scientists first heard in the fall of 1904 that Dr. W.L . Abbott would visit Washington , D. C . , the following year , the news prompted an excited inter -office flurry of suggestions on how to honour the Philadelphia millionaire , whose generous collections of animals, plants , and ethnologica had been flowing to the Smithsonian Museum from the earth ’ s far comers for the previous eighteen years . Abbott had last visited America briefly during the Spanish - American War of 1898 , when he stopped at Washington in a rush to Tampa ( Florida ) to volunteer for the Cuban invasion in the ‘ irregular ’ cavalry of his friend and fellow gentleman- scholar W . A. Chanler. As he expected , Abbott had found his native country impossible to live in , its weather unbearable and the masses of its people vile. Head Curator of Anthro- pology Otis T. Mason was well aware of this when he wrote in November 1904 to remind Abbott that: ‘ You did not die the last time you were here . ’ Quoting Mark Twain ( ‘ Washington City has no climate , only weather ’ ) , Mason assured Abbott he would be welcome at any season . Mason easily obtained approval to dismantle the Museum ’ s gallery of cir - cum -Pacific artefacts from Commodore Charles Wilkes ’ s path- breaking U . S . Exploring Expedition ( 1838 - 42 ) so he could display some of Abbott ’ s ethnographic collections from insular Southeast Asia , highlighting their significance in understand - ing the evolution of civilization . The decision seems prototypical in retrospect , for despite being created by the Congress of the United States and having an annual federal budget , the Smithsonian has always insisted that it is not a governmental institution . 1 The treasures of that first government - sponsored exploring expedition ( deposited in the Smithsonian because it is a government repository ) were quickly dismantled to honour the man who would become the Smithsonian ’ s greatest private donor. A December memorandum from Chief of Correspondence R .I . Geare to his boss, Smithsonian Secretary S.P . Langley , begged to know whether the Secretary would care to write an autograph letter acknowledging the recent receipt of more collections by Abbott , since the standard form - letter would only be sent after the collection had 1 The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846 in present form by Act of Congress as a ‘ trust instrumentality ’ of the U. S. government , from the legacy of the Englishman James Smithson , who in 1826 had willed his estate to found ‘ at Washington . .. an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men . ’ The Smithsonian ’ s Secretary is not a Cabinet Secretary but rather Secretary to a Smithsonian ’ s Board of Regents, a body headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and including the Vice President , members of the bicameral U. S. legislature , and citizens named for terms of office by joint resolution of Congress . Suggested citation format: Taylor, Paul Michael 2002 A Collector and His Museum: William Louis Abbott (1860-1936) and the Smithsonian. In: Treasure Hunting? The Collectors and the Collecting of Indonesian Artefacts. (Reimar Schefold and Han Vermeulen, eds.) Leiden: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), University of Leiden. Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, no. 30, pages 221-240.