Vernon Smith and Adam Smith

[Editor’s note: The AdamSmithWorks team was honored to receive the below assemblage of photos and recollections from Nobel laureate Vernon L. Smith and his wife, Candace Smith. The occasion was the unveiling of the now-famous statue of Adam Smith in Edinburgh. The recollections are Vernon’s, and the photos were all taken and shared by Candace. We thank Vernon and Candace deeply for trusting us with this legacy.]

Below are the photos that Candace took when I unveiled the Edinburgh Statue of Adam Smith on July 4, 2008.

Eamonn Butler [Director of the Adam Smith Institute] asked me to do it after first asking the Queen, who declined it. 

It was my one honor that exceeded my Nobel recognition in 2002.

The photo above includes me speaking to the audience that had gathered for the occasion.


In the second picture, I am about to pull the string revealing the statue to the crowd.


The third is the magnificent, tall, regal, bagpiper who serenaded the occasion. The man sitting to his left indicates from his dress that it was indeed a gala occasion for some.


Finally, the statue of the great man that Edinburgh finally decided to honor. He is facing down High Street. His friend, David Hume is memorialized by his statue appearing in the Square below. 

On the side of the foundation block, the names of many of us who had contributed money to the creation of the statue, including my friends, Milton Friedman and Bill and Rebecca Dunn, were engraved, but these engravings invited defacing and were later removed.



To fully appreciate my elation on this occasion, picture that it is the 4th of July, I am an American with Irish, Scotch, and English ancestors, at least one of whom (William Penrott Lomax)  fought in the American Revolutionary War. It is documented in the digital land records that in 1784, he was paid in 274 acres of land located in North Carolina, for his military service.

One of his descendents was my Grandfather's great uncle, Abel Lomax, a  Quaker. Upon getting married, his wife's father gifted them the freedom of two slaves (Jake and Delsy), and they brought them to the "free State" of Indiana. My grandfather and my mother were born in Paoli, Indiana, where Abel had settled.

  

After I went to Purdue, my mother and I visited Paoli and located the tree that my Grandfather had carved his initials on. After some 80 years the initials were well above our heads!

If you want to learn more about our two favorite Smiths...
Vernon wrote this three-part series on Adam Smith, Scientist and Evolutionist.
Sarah Skwire has a great time with Vernon and the Smith Questionnaire.
Vernon Smith on Adam Smith and the Human Enterprise, an EconTalk podcast.
Vernon Smith, What Adam Smith Means to Me, a Liberty Matters feature at the Online Library of Liberty.