234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The publishing of a journal was undertaken which perished after 

 the appearance of the first number. 



In 1827 Charles Willson Peale died and the next year the museum 

 moved into the Arcade on Chestnut Street above Sixth Street., on the 

 north side. In 1835, the stock of the company was increased from 

 $100,000 to $400,000 and a magnificent building was started at Ninth 

 and Sansom on the site of the present Continental Hotel. Three years 

 later the collections were moved from the Arcade into their new home. 



Up to this time the museum had been very prosperous financially 

 and had become largely a money-making concern. In 1841 the failure 

 of the United States Bank carried down the Museum Company. The 

 receivers of the bank foreclosed on the building, which was soon sold at 

 auction. By paying rent the Museum Company was allowed by the 

 new owner to occupy the building. In the hard times that followed, 

 the Museum Company attempted to keep its head above water by 

 vaudeville attractions and concerts. Thus the museum was thrown 

 into direct competition with the dime museum as typified by Barnum's 

 Museums. The directors of the company were not equal to competition 

 with the trained showman. "When, in 1846, the end came, the col- 

 lections were sold at auction, the pictures going all over the country; 

 yet one third subsequently came back to Independence Hall. 



An attempt was made to keep the Natural History collections 

 together; and until 1850 they were exhibited at Masonic Hall, but not 

 by the Peales. At tbat time they were sold by the sheriff and bought 

 for five or six thousand dollars by P. T. Barnum and his associate, 

 Moses Kimball. They were divided, half going to the Boston Museum 

 and half going to Barnum's American Museum, in New York. 10 

 Legend has it that the mastodon went to this latter place and was 

 destroyed when, in 1865, the American Museum burned. Since its 

 whereabouts 11 was not known in 1852 when Warren wrote his mono- 

 graph, it is possible that it was burned in the fire that destroyed, in 

 1851, Barnum's Philadelphia Museum. If tbis be the case it would 

 seem to indicate that Barnum did not take all his share of tbe speci- 

 mens to New York as he said he did. In either case it was destroyed. 



In 1900 the Boston Museum broke up, and the specimens were pre- 

 sented to the Boston Society of Natural History, where about 1,300 of 

 the birds now are. There is nothing to indicate that any specimens 

 were added to the collections after they were removed from the Phila- 

 delphia Museum. 



10 P. T. Barnum, " How I Made Millions "; the life of P. T. Barnum, written 

 by himself. 



"The bones mentioned by Warren as being exhibited in Paris belong, I 

 judge, to a mass of bones of several animals which were found at Big Bone Lick. 

 An attempt was made to sell them to Peale. As they were from several animals 

 he refused to buy them. Cf. "The Navigator," Pittsburg, 1811, 7th edition, 

 p. 117. 



