Charles Willson Peale-- Part 3: Not That Painting, That Museum

And, by the way, that painting of Washington which Dolley Madison supposedly saved from the White House was not by Charles Willson Peale.  It was by Gilbert Stuart.  Just in case you're wondering.

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Peale was quite the Renaissance Man as he knew a lot about a lot of things.  He not only had expertise in painting, but also many other fields like carpentry, dentistry,  optometry, shoemaking and taxidermy.  Around 1804, he obtained  the American patent  rights to the polygraph (creates a copy of writing) from its inventor John Isaac Hawkins.

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The Peale Museum

He also had a great interest in natural history and organized the first U.S. scientific expedition in 1801.  That led to his founding of  what became the Philadelphia Museum, later known as  Peale's American Museum.  After his death, his museum failed and was sold to showmen P.T. Barnum and Moses Kimball.

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Peale had ten children, most of them named after his favorite artists.  Three of them became noted artists:  Rembrandt Peale,  Raphaelle Peale and Titian Ramsay Peale.

--CootPeale