Mr. Peale's Museum: Charles Willson Peale and the First Popular Museum of Natural Science and Art
by Charles Coleman Sellers
- Used
- Very Good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good-
- ISBN 10
- 0393057003
- ISBN 13
- 9780393057003
- Seller
-
Brooktondale, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
First printing. Volume, measuring approximately 6.75" x 9.75", is bound in maroon cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine and author's initials in gold on front cover. Book displays light shelfwear. Dust jacket with moderate shelfwear. xiv/370 pages.
"Charles Willson Peale was not only one of our finest early American painters, but also the founder of the world's first popular museum of natural science and art. Peale's Museum, born of the painter's revolutionary idea that museums should be for everyone―not just for scientists and connoisseurs as had always been the case―was begun in the painter-naturalist's Philadelphia home, and over a seventy-five-year span it grew to include branches in New York City and Baltimore. In its day, Peale's Museum was an institute of learning and science comparable in national prestige to the Smithsonian Institution today. This is the story of that amazing endeavor and of the fascinating man who, virtually singlehandedly, made it happen. We see Peale, democrat to the core, pedagogue at heart, amateur yet rigorous scientist, delightful eccentric and utter optimist, bounding here and there under the impetus of his dream: to Maryland to collect birds and butterflies, up the Hudson Valley to find a mastodon's bones in a marl pit, into a New Jersey Cave to snare live rattlesnakes. We see him working night and day, painting backgrounds for his "World of Miniature" (the first time anyone had thought of displaying animal and other specimens in natural settings), mounting his finds (and inventing an improved method of taxidermy in the process), writing exhibit labels, dreaming up advertisements, and organizing his huge and rambunctious family into what must have been the most unusual museum staff of all time. Many great Americans of the day play a role in the Museum's story. Some pose for what was, in effect, the first national portrait gallery. Others take a more active role, among them George Washington (he heads the annual membership drive and makes the first government deposit―a Hawaiian chief's costume), Franklin (who offers advice, a gift of minerals, and a French Angora cat) and Jefferson (President of the Museum's "Board of Visitors," he places trophies from the Lewis and Clark expedition in the Museum). Mr Peale's Museum quickly became a national treasure."
"Charles Willson Peale was not only one of our finest early American painters, but also the founder of the world's first popular museum of natural science and art. Peale's Museum, born of the painter's revolutionary idea that museums should be for everyone―not just for scientists and connoisseurs as had always been the case―was begun in the painter-naturalist's Philadelphia home, and over a seventy-five-year span it grew to include branches in New York City and Baltimore. In its day, Peale's Museum was an institute of learning and science comparable in national prestige to the Smithsonian Institution today. This is the story of that amazing endeavor and of the fascinating man who, virtually singlehandedly, made it happen. We see Peale, democrat to the core, pedagogue at heart, amateur yet rigorous scientist, delightful eccentric and utter optimist, bounding here and there under the impetus of his dream: to Maryland to collect birds and butterflies, up the Hudson Valley to find a mastodon's bones in a marl pit, into a New Jersey Cave to snare live rattlesnakes. We see him working night and day, painting backgrounds for his "World of Miniature" (the first time anyone had thought of displaying animal and other specimens in natural settings), mounting his finds (and inventing an improved method of taxidermy in the process), writing exhibit labels, dreaming up advertisements, and organizing his huge and rambunctious family into what must have been the most unusual museum staff of all time. Many great Americans of the day play a role in the Museum's story. Some pose for what was, in effect, the first national portrait gallery. Others take a more active role, among them George Washington (he heads the annual membership drive and makes the first government deposit―a Hawaiian chief's costume), Franklin (who offers advice, a gift of minerals, and a French Angora cat) and Jefferson (President of the Museum's "Board of Visitors," he places trophies from the Lewis and Clark expedition in the Museum). Mr Peale's Museum quickly became a national treasure."
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Details
- Bookseller
- Palimpsest Scholarly Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1216
- Title
- Mr. Peale's Museum: Charles Willson Peale and the First Popular Museum of Natural Science and Art
- Author
- Charles Coleman Sellers
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good-
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0393057003
- ISBN 13
- 9780393057003
- Publisher
- W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1980
- Keywords
- Cultural Studies
Terms of Sale
Palimpsest Scholarly Books
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About the Seller
Palimpsest Scholarly Books
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Brooktondale, New York
About Palimpsest Scholarly Books
Palimpsest Scholarly Books & Services is a new online bookstore founded and managed by Dr. Raul Delgado-Rodriguez, a Harvard-trained comparatist. It specializes in the buying and selling of scholarly and rare books, as well as providing services for collectors of such books, including the appraisal of private collections. We have titles across a broad range of fields and cultures. We specialize in providing uncommon foreign-language works.
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- Jacket
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- New
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- Spine
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- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...