We have a duel objective in giving the Travalanche treatment to Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) and his distinguished family this morning. The first is that the Peales figured in the American Revolution, the 250th anniversary of which we will be celebrating over the next couple of years. The second, closer to the usual themes of this blog, is that they played a role in the development of the American dime museum.
Born in Chester, Maryland (on the Delaware side of the Chesapeake), Peale was a saddlemaker in his youth, and was also skilled at such diverse fields as shoemaking, carpentry, dentistry, optometry, and taxidermy. The latter skill would come in particularly handy in years to come. Peale was especially skilled at painting, however, and managed to study with important artists of his time, including Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, and others. When Revolution began to loom, Peale moved to Philadelphia, joined the Sons of Liberty, recruited for the Pennsylvania militia, and fought in the war, rising to the rank of captain in the Continental army. Today he is chiefly remembered for his portraits of Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, and Alexander Hamilton.
To exhibit his portraits publicly in 1784, Peale founded his Philadelphia Museum. It’s easy to fall into the trap, as I do, of streamlining the history of American amusement by beginning the narrative with P.T. Barnum, a man who approached museum exhibition strictly from the point of view of selling tickets and entertaining visitors. The field does antedate Barnum though, on two fronts. On the one hand, there were plenty of fly-by-night operators who exhibited freaks and other attractions in storefronts on a temporary basis. On the other hand, there were figures like Peale, who we differentiate from Barnum on account of their high cultural aspirations. Peale was not just a fine artist, but also, as we mentioned, a taxidermist. His special love was collecting, stuffing, and displaying bird specimens, of which he had hundreds. He often presented them in front of nature paintings in the manner of a diorama.
People also sent Peale bizarre items to exhibit, and to support foot traffic in the museum, Peale usually obliged by showing these oddities. Early on such treasures included a chicken with two sets of legs and wings, an 80 pound turnip, a two headed calf, the trigger finger of an executed murderer, and a small chunk of the Westminster Abbey throne where monarchs are crowned. The most legendary highlight of the museum, surely the most spectacular, was a complete, re-assembled mastodon skeleton. There were also wax figures and a live menagerie that included two grizzly bears, a monkey, a bald eagle, and a tank full of deadly snakes. It various times it was located at Independence Hall, the Pennsylvania State House, and at the American Philosophical Society.
Peale had ten children, most of them named after famous painters or naturalists, and many of whom followed him into the family business either as painters, naturalists, or museum operators. Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860), his third eldest, is probably best known, for he too was a highly respected painter on patriotic themes, and he created the Baltimore Museum in 1814. His youngest, Titian Peale (1799-1885) explored with Lewis and Clark and brought back a huge butterfly collection and numerous Native American artifacts. Franklin Peale (1795-1870), the head of the Philadelphia mint, traveled widely and brought back items from Hawaii, the South Seas, and South America. Most notable here though is Rubens Peale (1784-1865), who became his father’s right arm, and both expanded and popularized the family operations, taking over in 1810, and opening a second Peale’s Museum in New York in 1825 (the third if you include the Baltimore one opened up by Rembrandt, which later also came under Rubens’ management). It was Rubens who encouraged his father to present live performances in the upstairs lecture room. For example, there was musical concerts, and demonstrations of a “learned dog” named Romeo. Of all the Peales, it was Rubens who nudged the family in the direction of the dime museum.
By the mid 19th century there were many other players in the museum game. The Peales sold their collections to Barnum and to Moses Kimball. The educational infrastructure of the Philadelphia Museum evolved into the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. These are both distinct from both Philadelphia’s University of the Arts (where Camille Paglia teaches), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (which was created for the Centennial Exposition in 1876). I’m beginning to get the impression Philadelphia cares about art.
For more on the history of show business consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,
(Travalanche) 
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