The Peale Museum, also known as the Municipal Museum of Baltimore, was a museum of paintings and natural history, located in BaltimoreMaryland,USA. It occupied the first building in the Western Hemisphere to be designed and built as a museum.[3] The Peale Museum was created by Charles Willson Peale. The museum closed in 1997 and its collections were handed over to the Maryland Historical Society.[4] The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.[2]

History

Charles Willson Peale received his inspiration for a public museum in 1783 while illustrating mastodon fossils belonging to Dr. John Morgan. Once he had conceived the idea for an American museum of natural history, Charles Peale opened a museum to the public in Philadelphia on July 18, 1786. In 1810, Peale retired from his work with the museum, leaving its management and responsibility to his sons. Later in 1814, a museum was established at 225 North Holliday Street in Baltimore by Rembrandt Peale - the second son of Charles Willson Peale. It was then dubbed as "Peale's Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts" and had the early exhibits including portraits of famous Americans (many by the founder) and the complete skeleton of a prehistoric mastodon exhumed by C.W. Peale in 1801.

In 1830, the museum was sold and the exhibits were moved to a space on Calvert Street. In few years, the building became home to the Baltimore's first City Hall, Number 1 Colored Primary School and was rented out to a series of private businesses. By 1928, it had been repeatedly condemned and was in danger of demolition. With the inspiration of historians and journalists, the restoration of the old museum took place with an expense of $90,000. The building was rededicated in 1931 as the Municipal Museum of Baltimore. The Museum underwent a major two year renovation starting in 1978 and was reopened in 1981 as Peale Museum. In 1985, the Peale became part of the City Life Museums system.

Started with a combination of Peale's portraits of Revolutionary War heroes and an assortment of curiosities, the museum's collection, over time, became dominated the displays of animalmineral, and ethnographic specimens. The museum became a repository for the collection of the American Philosophical Society, including many of the fossils donated by Thomas Jefferson. The centerpiece of Peale's Museum remains the skeleton of the giant mastodon.

The museum occupied parts of two substantial buildings. The Independence Hall housed three rooms — The Quadruped Room displaying 90 specimens ofmammals, The Long Room with more than 700 bird specimens situated in mini-dioramas, about 4,000 insects in glass cases, numerous minerals and scores of Peale's portraits and a third room showcasing marine specimens. The walls of the museum were surmounted by a large collection of portraits of American politicians and leaders.

Peale Museum also became the home for many of the Native American artifacts and natural history specimens collected during the Lewis and Clark and other government-sponsored expeditions.

The entire Peale collection has been moved to the Maryland Historical Society. The building on North Holliday is vacant.

References

1.       ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23.

2.       a b "Peale's Baltimore Museum". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2009-03-30.

3.       ^ Mendinghall, Joseph S. (February 28, 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination: Peale's Baltimore Museum". National Park Service. Retrieved 2009-03-30.

4.       ^ "Baltimore City Life Museum Photo Collection". Maryland Historical Society. Retrieved 2009-07-27.

Source: Wikipedia
Contributed by Anonymous
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