PE ALE'S MUSEUM 237 



placed in the most conspicuous point of light to be seen to the best advantage, 

 without being handled. Besides a classical catalogue descriptive of every article 

 in so extensive a museum, there ought also to be a library consisting of the 

 writings of the best authors on natural history from Aristotle down to the 

 present time. A few persons well acquainted with the methods of preserving 

 subjects should be continually employed. Gentlemen of talent should be allowed 

 to deliver lectures in the several branches of natural history. ... It would 

 readily be conceived that some person should have the superintendence of the 

 museum, under whose directions every addition should be made and the care of 

 everything should rest with him. . . . 



Parts of this lecture and the one delivered in the previous winter in 

 " the hall of the University of Pennsylvania/' as an introduction to a 

 course of twenty-seven, 15 remind one amazingly of certain portions of 

 the addresses of Sir William Flower 16 and Brown Goode. 17 



Some of the characteristic features of Peale's Museum might be 

 summarized as follows : 



1. Its collections were educational rather than scientific. 



2. The idea of indicating the natural environment with the mounted 

 specimen, the idea of framing the pages of books (recommended also 

 by Brown Goode), the idea of having diagrams and popular descriptions 

 of the specimens beside the specimens themselves, and the idea of 

 placing those of the 4,000 insects that were too small to be easily 

 observed by the naked eye under permanent simple and compound 

 microscopes, and his methods of taxidermy, all of which approach ihe 

 arrangement of modern museums of natural history. 



3. Although Peale was not the first to give lectures in natural 

 history in this country, yet he was the first to give lectures illustrated 

 by specimens. 



The Influence of the Museum 

 The influence of the museum was wide-spread, but lay not in the 

 direction that the founder had hoped. A perusal of the newspapers of 

 the first decade of the nineteenth century will show that by this time 

 there were a number of museums in every city. They show also that 

 these museums were copied from Peale's Museum, in that they nearly 

 always had a gallery of portraits of heroes in connection with a col- 

 lection of curiosities. By the first quarter of the century, all had added 

 concerts as an additional attraction. It was not long before the concert 

 developed into a variety theater, although in the case of the Boston 

 Museum legitimate drama was given. In the middle of the century 

 these museums reached their greatest development, such as it was, while 

 Peale's Museum became but a memory. Barnum's American Museum 



15 " Introduction to a Course of Lectures in Natural History," Philadel- 

 phia, 1800. 



16 Flower, William Henry, " Essays on Museums," 1898. 



17 Brown Goode, " Museum History and the Museums of History," American 

 Historical Association, 1888, p. 63. 



