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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

The Smithson Medal

The Directors of the National Collection of Fine Arts and the National Portrait Gallery have recommended that Edgar Preston Richardson, an eminent authority on American art and former Director of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, receive the Smithson Medal for his advancement of the study of American art and his related services to the Smithsonian Institution.

The Smithson Medal, consisting of a gold medal, a scroll, and an honorarium of as much as $25,000 is to be awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in those areas of art, science, and history and technology which are the basic concern of the Smithsonian Institution. The medal will be given only for the most outstanding achievement reflected either in a single act or through a long career of distinguished achievement.  The Secretary first awarded the medal on behalf of the Board of Regents to the British Royal Society on the occasion of the Bicentennial of the Birth of James Smithson.  The award carried no honorarium.

It is proposed that the Smithson Medal, with appropriate citation and an honorarium of $5,000 be awarded to Edgar Preston Richardson on or around the occasion of the formal opening of the National Collection of Fine Arts for his contributions to the study of American art and his service to the public and the Smithsonian Institution.

Dr Richardson's contributions to the study of art are most distinguished and in the field of American art are of unparalleled quality and range of influence.  He has performed notable public services as the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts and subsequently of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware; he has written the standard text on the subject of American painting in books marked by broad scholarship and perceptive judgment; he is also an authority on Flemish painting; he has developed the Art Quarterly into an instrument of vital support to scholars in the American field; and he has created, through imagination, resourcefulness and immense dedication, the nation's greatest scholarly resource in the field, The Archives of American Art.

His contributions to the Smithsonian Institution have also been of vital importance.  He has given generously from his experience and judgment as a member of the Commissions of the National Portrait Gallery and the National Collection of Fine arts.  During the most critical periods in the development of the latter museum, he filled the position of Commission Chairman and provided invaluable advice and counsel.