THE ARTIST IN HIS MUSEUM Self portrait by Charles Willson Peale, 1822 Oil on canvas Courtesy of The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of Mrs. Sarah Harrison (The Joseph Harrison, Jr. Collection) Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) was a Maryland-born portrait painter and the patriarch of what has been called "the most talented family raised in Revolutionary America." In 1775, he moved his family to Philadelphia, then the artistic and intellectual center of the English colonies. As an artist, Peale is best known for his portraits of Revolutionary War leaders and early American statesmen. However, his interests and influence ranged far beyond the artistic academy, encompassing politics, philosophy, theology, literature, and the natural sciences. In 1784, having been presented with a paddlefish specimen, Peale began developing what would become the nation's first museum of cultural and natural history.

 

	h o m e i n t r o d u c t i o n o b j e c t s m a p r e s o u r c e s c r e d i t s The Ethnography of Lewis and Clark: Native American Objects and the American Quest for Commerce and Science Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Copyright ©President and Fellows of Harvard College