2 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



interwoven with the life of the father, that any biography of 

 Titian Peale must of necessity be prefaced by a brief sketch of 

 Charles Willson and the famous institution which he established.^ 



Charles Willson Peale was born at Chestertown, Queen Anne 

 County, Maryland, April 15, 1741. His father Charles Peale 

 had emigrated from England about 1726 and taught school in 

 Maryland until his death in 1750. Charles Willson and his 

 mother then removed to Annapolis and we find him at the age 

 of thirteen apprenticed to a saddler, while at twenty-one he is 

 married and engaged in the saddlery business on his own ac- 

 count. 



At the age of twenty-four he discovered his talent for portrait 

 painting and after studying under several masters, including 

 Benjamin West of London, he established himself in Phila- 

 delphia in 1774 and began his professional career as an artist. 

 Service in the Pennsylvania militia during the Revolution in- 

 terrupted his work, but at the close of the war he reestablished 

 himself at Third and Lombard streets, adding to his house a 

 large room to serve as a studio and art gallerj'. Here were 

 placed as ornaments various natural curiosities presented to him 

 by friends; and as this display increased, he conceived the idea of 

 converting his gallery into a museum of natural history. Peale 

 worked diligently to carry out his idea and for a time, owing 

 to neglect of his portrait painting, he was in sore straits finan- 

 cially. He accumulated many specimens mainly ' ' large and 

 striking to the sight " , as he tells us in his unpublished auto- 

 biography,'' while he devoted much time in devising methods 

 of preserving them from decay and the ravages of insect pests. 

 His museum was opened in 1784, and at once attracted much 

 attention. It soon outgrew its quarters and was transferred to 

 the hall of the American Philosophical Society of which Peale 



" For the data upon whicli tliis sketch is based the writer would make 

 especial acknowledgment to a biographical sketch of Titian E. Peale by Dr. 

 A. C. Peale (Bull. Philos. Soc. Washington, xiv, pp. 317-326), and to an 

 account of Peale's Museum by Dr. Howard Sellers Colton (Pop. Sci. Monthly 

 Ixxv, pp. 221-238). CJ. also an article by Witmer Stone (Auk., 1899, pp. 

 166-177). 



» CJ. Colton. 



