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Speakers of the House do have a security detail (chapters 2, 21, 44). Ex-presidents have the same, but they have the option of refusing Secret Service protection. The oath of office quoted at the end of chapter 39 is one every senator repeats. Danny Daniels moving from the presidency to the Senate not only is possible, but actually happened in 1875 when Andrew Johnson was the first to do it (chapter 21).
This novel is centered on the Smithsonian Institution (not the Smithsonian Institute as it’s sometimes called). It was created after an unknown British chemist, James Smithson, left $500,000 in his will for that purpose. His bequest is even stranger given that Smithson never once visited the United States. It would be seventeen years after Smithson died before Congress finally created the institution. All of the political doubts detailed in the prologue about whether to honor Smithson’s request are real.
The Smithsonian is governed by a seventeen-member board of regents, appointed as outlined in chapter 10. The chief justice of the United States acts as chancellor (chapter 23). Each museum has its own citizens advisory board that works closely with that museum’s administration. Presently, I serve on the one for the Smithsonian Libraries. The Cullman Library inside the National Museum of Natural History (chapter 15) and the library inside the National Museum of American History, where Martin Thomas worked, are two of those.
The tunnel beneath the National Mall between the Castle and the natural history museum exists (chapter 16). The only difference is I added a bend in the path. In reality, it’s a straight line for 730 feet. The spiral staircase winding through the north tower of the Smithsonian Castle is there (chapter 19) and its provenance, as detailed, is accurate. I made one change, adding an exit on the second floor, which no longer exists. Owls did in fact once occupy the northwest tower (chapter 19). The Castle’s rotunda is as described (chapter 19), including the enormous gilded case that holds the institution’s ceremonial objects (chapter 23). The key is real (chapter 11), found in the Castle attic in the late 1950s, and subsequently incorporated into the induction ceremony for all incoming secretaries (chapters 19, 23, 25). The original stays on display in the rotunda’s gilded case, with a copy presented to each successive secretary (chapter 25). All of the intrigue surrounding the key was my invention.
A few other Smithsonian notes: The quote by James Smithson in chapter 13 is from one of his letters. Smithsonite is named for Smithson (chapter 23, 58), and is a relatively useless mineral compound. A small chunk of it, though, adorns my desk. Jefferson Davis served as a Smithsonian regent and later as secretary of war (chapter 25). But there was no 1854 Smithsonian expedition to the American Southwest (chapter 25). The post of Castle curator is real (chapter 11), currently occupied by Richard Stamm, who became a character in the novel.
Joseph Henry acted as the first Smithsonian secretary from 1846 to 1878. During the Civil War he worked with the navy to evaluate inventions and proposals (prologue) acting, in essence, as Lincoln’s science adviser. His lack of enthusiasm for the Union cause (prologue) is fact, as is his insistence that the Smithsonian remain neutral.
But he was never disloyal.
The story about him being arrested and charged as a spy, as told in chapter 62, is probably just that, a story. The account was published in Carl Sandburg’s biography of Abraham Lincoln, about sixty years after Lincoln’s death. Most agree that Sandburg probably embellished the tale, as he provided no source for his version. Lincoln did participate in the experiment as an observer, but he was not with Joseph Henry on the roof of the Castle, as Sandburg related. Instead, he was on the roof of the Soldiers’ Home about four miles northeast of the Castle, while Henry stood on the roof of the Castle’s tower. We know this because two other accounts of the event exist, which are much less colorful and neither as well known nor as oft repeated as Sandburg’s.
The mistake about Smithson’s age, engraved on his tomb inside the Castle, is real (chapter 60). How Smithson’s bones eventually made it to Washington, DC, is accurately told (chapter 58). The report quoted in chapter 58 on the 1973 opening of Smithson’s tomb is taken nearly verbatim from an actual Smithsonian document. The silk lining did catch on fire and workers extinguished it by filling their mouths with water from a nearby fountain. The opening of the tomb was not without controversy. To this day no one knows exactly why it was done and the explanations given at the time were weak. How Cotton and Rick Stamm reopen the tomb (chapter 62) is exactly how it would be done.
Today the Smithsonian Institution consists of nineteen world-class museums, a zoo, and nine research centers. At the heart of most of these facilities is a library. By and large, those libraries do not sit out on an exhibit floor. No signage points the way to them. Instead, they are tucked off to the side, out of the way, but working hard every day.
Like a heart.
The human heart beats sixty to eighty times a minute. You don’t feel it, or notice it, or really even pay it much attention—until it stops.
The same is true for the Smithsonian Libraries.
Its collections are amazing. Over two million books, manuscripts, maps, prints, paintings, research data, and physical artifacts. Anything and everything you could possibly imagine. The subjects are likewise all-encompassing, including aerospace, anthropology, astronomy, astrophysics, art, biology, botany, history, sociology, zoology, and much more. For 2016, nearly $17 million will be spent keeping the doors open, ensuring all of that information remains readily available to researchers, scholars, and the public at large. Nearly 10 percent of that budget has to be raised from individual and corporate contributions. And unlike in the novel, there is no vault of gold waiting to be found.
Instead, it takes all of us to keep it running.
For over 170 years the Smithsonian Libraries have proudly supported the mission of the Smithsonian Institution. Once that happened solely from physically visiting one of the libraries. Now the Internet provides constant access. In 2016 there were over than 1 million Web visitors and nearly 17 million Web content downloads.
That’s a lot of use.
Right now, as you read these words, amazing things are happening at a Smithsonian library. Each one is truly a world-class place of learning—where people come to both test and expand their ideas—where we can all turn for answers. So the next time you wander through Air and Space, or the American history museum, one of the portrait galleries, the National Zoo, or any of the other museums or research centers, remember—
At the heart of every one of those is a Smithsonian library.
To make a contribution or learn more about the Smithsonian Libraries, visit www.library.si.edu.
