Florence Griswold Museum - Token for Peale Museum, Philadelphia

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Image of Token for Peale Museum, Philadelphia

Photo Credit: Paul Mutino

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Bookmark: http://collections.flogris.org/objects-1/info/22803

Token for Peale Museum, Philadelphia

after 1821
19th century
1 1/4 in. diameter

Medium and Support: copper

Credit Line: Florence Griswold Museum Purchase

Accession Number: 2017.6

This coin commemorates the incorporation of The Philadelphia Museum, the first natural history museum in the United States. Founded in 1784 by Charles Willson Peale, the museum operated for many years out of the American Philosophical Society and later Independence Hall. Peale’s museum integrated the arts and sciences with an eclectic display of thousands of natural specimens including taxidermy, insects, minerals and fossils, Asian and American artifacts, inventions, curiosities, and hundreds of Peale’s portraits of distinguished Americans.

In his monumental self-portrait, The Artist in His Museum, Peale shows himself dramatically lifting a curtain to reveal and invite the viewer to explore the museum’s many wonders, which include the bones of a prehistoric mastodon that he excavated in New York State. In the spirit of Enlightenment ideals, Peale formed his collection with the goal of educating the public and employed his children to assist in that task. Works by Peale’s sons, Rubens Peale, Raphaelle Peale, and Titian Ramsay Peale (all named after famous artists) are on view nearby.

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