History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 24

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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In 1794 a committee of the House, which had visited the museum, made a very favorable report, recommending that a loan of one thousand dollars be made to Peale. The House, however, refused to adopt this recommendation.

At this juncture the Philosophical Society nobly came forward and granted Peale the use of its build- ing in Fifth Street, below Chestnut. Thither the museum was transferred in September, 1794, and its importance was better appreciated when the numer- ous specimens were properly arranged in the spacious rooms of the society. Here Mr. Peale began to form a zoological garden in a small way. It was fitted up in the rear of the building on Independence Square. Among other live specimens there was an eagle, over whose cage was this inscription, "Feed me well, and I'll live a hundred years." Mr. Peale manipulated wax with as much skill as he wielded the brush. The Rev. Manassah Cutler, who visited the museum while it was still at Third and Lombard Streets, relates the following anecdote :

" Immediately after dinner we called on Mr. Peule tu see his collec- tions of paintings and natural curiosities. We were conducted inte n room by a boy, who told us Mr. Peale would wait on us In a minute or two. He desired us, however, to walk into the room where the curiosi- ties were, and showed us a long, barrow entry which led into the room. I observed, through a glass window at my right hand, a gentleman close to me, standing with a pencil in one hand and a small sheet of ivory in the other, and his eyes directed to the opposite side of the room, as though he was taking some object on his ivory sheet. Dr. Clarkson did not see this man until he stepped into the room; but instantly turned about, nil came back saying, ' Mr. Peale is very busy taking the picture of something with his pencil. We will step back into the other room, and wait till he is at leisure." We returned through the entry ; but as we entered the toom we met Mr. Peale coming to us. The doctor started

back in ast mishment, uml cried out, "Mr Peale, how is it possible you should get out of the other room to meet us here?' Mr. Peale smiled and said, ' I have not been in the other room for some time.' 'Na " said Dr. Clarkson. ' Pil I not see yon there this moment with your pencil and ivory ?" . Why do you think you didI asked Penale. . Why do I think I did " replied Dr Clarkson. 'I saw you there if I ever saw you in my life.' 'Well,' says Peale, 'let na go nud see.'

" When we returned we found the man standing as before. It was a piece of waxwork which Mr. Peale had just finished, in which he had taken a likeness f himself"

Mr. Cutler says of the collection,-

"The walls of the room were covered with paintings, both portrait nil historic. Under a small gallery his natural curiosities are arranged in n most romantic und amusing manner. There was a mound of earth, considerably raised aud covered with green turf, from which a number of trees ascended and branched out in different directions. On the de-

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AMUSEMENTS OF THE PHILADELPHIANS.

clivity of this mound was a small thicket, and just below it an artificial pond ; on the other side a number of large and small rocks of different kinds, collected from different parts of the earth. At the foot of the mound were holes dug, and the earth thrown up, to show the different kinds of clay,-ochre, coal, marl, etc.,-which he had collected from various parts ; also ores and minerals. Around the pond was a beach, on which was exhibited a fine assortment of shells, turtles, frogs, lizards, water-snakes etc. In the pond was a collection of fish, with their skins stuffed, water-fowl, such as geese, ducks, cranes, herons, etc., all having the appearance of life, for their skins were admirably preserved. Ou the mound were such birds as commonly walk on the ground, etc."

But the great curiosity that attracted all Philadel- phia to the museum, some years later, was the skeleton of the mammoth. Peale got the first information about the discovery of this skeleton in 1785. The first bones were brought to him by Dr. Browne, for the purpose of making drawings of them. Mr. Peale often gazed on these drawings, and thought what a grand thing it would be to procure an entire skeleton. The occasion, so long wished for, presented itself in the autumu of 1799. In digging a marl-pit in the vicinity of Newburgh, on the river Hudson, some workmen came upon many bones of extraordinary size. Peale, learning of the discovery through the newspapers, proceeded to the spot and succeeded in obtaining a collection of bones. Some portions of the skeleton were wanting, and artificial ones had to be substituted. The bones collected belonged to more than one animal, and after completing the first skele- ton it was found that a second might be put together. This was done by Rembrandt and Raphael Peale, who took this second skeleton to England in 1802. They failed to sell it there, and brought it back to this country in 1803. In honor of the finishing of the second mammoth a collation was given within the cavity of the skeleton to twelve gentlemen. This original feast was the subject of a long article in the Portfolio, in which all the toasts, many of them witty, were given, as well as a loug poem written for the occasion.

Peale had many warm friends and admirers, and after the removal of the Legislature from Philadel- phia they exerted themselves on his behalf to obtain the use of a vacant portion of the State-House. By an act passed on the 17th of March, 1802, Mr. Peale was authorized to occupy the east room of the lower story (now known as the Independence Hall) and all the upper stories. He established his museum in the second story. Additions to the curiosities on exhibi- tion were constantly made, and Mr. Peale spared neither pains nor money to make the museum worthy of the public patronage. Until 1806, the place was open to visitors during daytime only, owing to the difficulty of lighting large rooms with the ordinary lamps and candles in use at that time. In that year the proprietor gave notice that the museum would be lighted twice a week with patent lamps and candles equal to the light of two hundred and twenty ordinary lamps of candles. These evening exhibitions were generally well attended, for, in addition to their being an accommodation to the general public, there was

always some novel feature introduced to make the ex- hibitions more attractive. In this Mr. Peale was as- sisted by his sons,-Rubens, Franklin, and Titian . Peale. They gave lectures and experiments in chem- istry, philosophy, exhibitions of the magic lantern, philosophical fire-works, electric experiments, and other entertainments, scientific and instructive.

Charles Wilson Peale and Titian Peale, assisted by - Fenton and James Griffith, were the taxidermists of the museum. In 1809, Mr. Peale commenced a collection of stuffed monkeys, dressed as human beings, and engaged in some of the occupations familiar to man. The first exhibition represented a poet and a painter, with another individual sitting for his por- trait in the artist's studio. Others followed, and in each new group some comical effect was obtained. Monkeys were represented as engaged in the various trades, and the contrast between their grave occupa- tions and their mischievous faces and ridiculous at- attitudes was extremely amusing. Peale's monkey tradesmen live in the memory of many au aged Phila- delphian.

So many specimens had been added to the museum that the place was crowded, and there were many duplicates. Rembrandt Peale added to this surplus stock a collection of natural curiosities, which he purchased from James Savage, and he proceeded to Baltimore, where be established a museum and gal- lery of fine arts in Holliday Street. In January, 1818, the "Great Sea-Serpent" was exhibited at Peale's Museum. This monster, captured in the month of September of the preceding year off the coast of Massachusetts, had been submitted to the examination of the Linnaan Society of New England, and by it named Scoliophis Atlanticus. J. R. Peniman painted a grand picture of the capture of the sea- serpent, and this picture, nineteen feet in length by nine feet in height, was added to the treasures of the museum. Another sea-monster-a " devil-fish," twelve feet long, fifteen feet broad, and weighing two thousand pounds-was exhibited at the museum in 1823. Occasionally the place was opened to other exhibitions besides those of natural curiosities. Thus, in 1820, the " Pandean Band," consisting of a single performer, an Italian named Signor Helene, who played on five different instruments at the same time, was engaged. He was certainly a living curi- osity, if not a " natural" one, for by using his hands, elbows, and knees, he managed to play on the Italian viola, the Turkish cymbals, and the tenor drum, while he blew into a set of pandean pipes thrust into his waistcoat, and by wagging his head tinkled the Chinese bells fixed thereon as a sort of helmet, pre- senting a grotesque rather than artistic appearance. The "orchestra-man" has long ceased to be a curiosity, but at that time he drew well.

The art gallery connected with Peale's Museum contained principally portraits painted by C. W. Peale himself, and by his sons at a later date. They will be

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

treated under their proper head in our chapter on art.

. Peale's Museum was absorbed into the Philadelphia Museum Company, which was incorporated by act of the Legislature in February, 1821. The corporators were Pierce Butler, Raphael Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Coleman Sellers, and Rubens Peale,-all of whom, except Butler, being members of the l'eale family. It was organized on the 14th of March, 1821, and the trustees were Pierce Butler, Professor Robert Patter- son, Zaccheus Collins, Coleman Sellers, and Rubens Peale. The company established a series of scientific lectures, to be illustrated by articles in the possession of the company. This was a good plan to diffuse knowledge in the most entertaining manner. These interesting lectures were delivered by the following gentlemen : On Mineralogy, Dr. Gerard Troost ; Zo- ology, Thomas Say ; Comparative Anatomy, Dr. Richard Harlan ; Physiology, Dr. John D. Godman. The conservator in zoology was Titian Peale, and the manager Rubens Peale. Charles Wilson Peale de- livered a lecture on Natural History, in 1823. In 1828 the museum was removed to the Arcade, where it remained until 1838.

On the 4th of July of that year the Philadelphia Museum building, at the northeast corner of Ninth and Sansom Streets, was opened for exhibition. The museum was supposed to have outgrown the accom- modations for the storage and exhibition of the col- lection at the Arcade. As early as Dec. 22, 1835, leave was given to the Museum Company, which was incorporated in 1821, to change its capital so that five hundred shares of two hundred dollars cach should be divided in value into one thousand shares of one hundred dollars each. This would only have been a change without increase of capital. But permission was given to increase the number of shares to four thousand, which would swell the capital to four hun- dred thousand dollars. In the act it was declared that no part of the museum should be sold except Implicates. With the increased stock and iu an en- arged spirit of enterprise the managers of the mu- -rum undertook the erection of a splendid building. It was two stories in height, each with very lofty ceil- ings. The length was two hundred and thirty-eigh feet, nearly three-quarters of the square, extending from Ninth lowird Eighth Street. The width was " senty het. The sex and story ran over all. The Der-firs extended Back to ar inclosed portion cut of frott le mom binding, an apartment by itself wir s an cabe Ith lo ture-som. lt hod its sepa- no valand and the Taket-ofhed ele., on Sinsom St milión edward towarluegoare passage and NE ARE Free to THE coffeeed with an alley AFolsun twenty feet in width extemhing castward Thơp Nads Sheet, and off the north side of the nin- The day seprate the museum Theog Va real co L'of finding- of ( In ston Street, the joe yak at which was Book's Cirens, afterward Bur-

ton's National Theatre. The first story of the build- ing was reached by the doorway on Ninth Street. It was appropriated on the opening for the use of Dunn's Chinese Museum, a very fine collection, which had been made by Nathan Dunn, merchant, during a long residence in China. This exhibition was a life like representation of Chinese men and women in their proper costumes and engaged in their business, social avocations, and amusements.)

The second story was approached by a spacious stairway. The long room was of sufficient height to admit of a gallery all round it near the walls. In the middle of the floor, mounted upon a high pedestal, was the skeleton of the great mammoth, an elephant, other animals and objects, extending from the front

1 In the " History of Chestnut Street," by Casper Sonder, Jr., is the following description of Dunn's Chinese Museum :

" The collection was wonderfully complete. First, there were life-size and lite-like wax figures which represented every order of the Chinese from the blind beggar to the mamlarin of the first class. These figures were all dressed exactly as the originals dress, and all were presented in the exercise of their respective vocations. The huge room in which the collection was exInbited was fitted up with compartments in which were represented Chinese streets, Chinese parlors, Chinese chambers, Chinese works ups, Chinese states, and Chinese temples. All there were appro- printely furnished, not with painted shams, in the way of tools, fixtures, ete., but with real substantial articles which were nudle in China, and which at that moment had their counterparts in the houses and shops of the Celestials. There was a cabinet of curiously-wrought furniture, aid in which a party of high government offici. Is, with their scribes, etc., were engaged in the discussion of some business matters. The waxen mandarins were all clad in the splendid embroidered garments of their order. And the descriptive catalogue would teach the visitor how to distinguish the different grules of officials by the color of the button on The top of the cap. Close to where the great turn were in conseil would be a group of their wives, with their little feet preping out from their embroidered shirts, ain (the wives) taking tea together out of tiny porcelain cups while theus lands were engaged in discussing the affairs of the central flowery kingdomm.

" The store. keeper was behind his counter, just as he was to be seen in the streets f Cant in, and with rolls of real silk upon the shelves of his shop. A tawny chi med customer was represented making his selec- tim of garnis; a clerk was busy at his desk making ent i 8 in his books with the art of a camel'.hair percil and a stick of India ink ; a beg ar WAS MAICI mg alms - the walls were merned with wise maxims from Confi us, and a Chinese store was displayed to the life. In the narrow apartment which represented the oper street were coches trotting along with some faxing ne mets cual suspended it a 'sedan-chan' from bam- 1 piles ; tiet hinese farber was seen plying his trade njom the ' nob' of a custores in the open air; the a betont tinker was flowing his fire to countuence of nations upon a chucked qinuet-gt ; an ancient voll ler was thisy en a damaged she ; and send . bestman who spends Ins entielt new 51 ] she on (Pet 11 0 River was presented, with his wife and Ins or Jeores, on I a lated 0 at taken from the water by Mi. Dann, with all its real nymles atrafp triat est anjdete even to the gu which was hed to the yil anggrous celestial to keep

DETteil Ly to di Th Heili'm was very altra ne lo several

i stumet wia h sroned to be a cross between a bundy-gurdy and a

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AMUSEMENTS OF THE PHILADELPHIANS.

to the back, and leaving the centre of the grand hall free of other obstructions. The natural history col- lection, animals, beasts, birds, etc., were placed in alcoves, lighted from the many windows on the north and south sides. The gallery floors were sustained on the top of the cases of the alcoves. There were cases also in this part of the building between the windows, but not so deep as on the main floor. A fine landscape scene filled up the extreme end of the hall from gallery to ceiling. The profile department, a most attractive and popular adjunct of the museum from the time of its being in the State-House, was arranged for taking silhouettes about the middle of the north gallery. Portraits of the old Peale collec- tion, two or three hundred in number, were arranged along the fronts of the galleries. The arrangement was attractive. The collection had never been shown to such advantage, but, unfortunately, the enterprise was not successful. The lot had been taken up from Isaac Brown Parker on a heavy ground-rent. The building is said to have cost one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. While the patronage would have been liberal enough in a situation where the expenses were not so heavy, they were not sufficient to keep up either of these collections. At first the visitors were very considerable in number, but when local curiosity had been fully satisfied, the ordinary run of business was not sufficient to keep up the establishment.

tation or two to make a little variety. These "levy" concerts were given at a period when times were hard and money was not very plenty, and people were dis- posed to economy. They were cheap and attractive, because they were generally well conducted. The pro- fessional performers were persons of experience, the amateurs who were singers usually possessed good natural voices and knew something about music, and the instrumental performers were quite respectable in their efforts.

After a struggle of about six years the Philadel- phia Museum was unable to maintain itself longer. The fine collection of objects of natural history, the largest in the country, was sold and dispersed. Bar- num secured a portion of them for his collection in New York and for his museum in Philadelphia. Other curiosities went to Baltimore, Boston, and other cities. An effort was made to continue the better portions of the Peale collection in the old Masonic Hall in Chestnut Street, and to exhibit such curiosi- ties as had been saved in connection with theatrical performances. The Academy of Fine Arts, or Peale's Museum Theatre, was opened by John Sefton & Co. in August, 1846, and closed in July, 1847.

The whole building at Ninth and Sansom Streets now became devoted to public use. The lecture-room, something like that in a medical college, the lecturer standing on a platform below the spectators, they Dunn's collection was the first to yield. After two | seated in rising benches up to the ceiling, was occu- or three years it was removed to London, with prom- ise that it should be returned in a few years. It was believed that Mr. Dunn intended to bequeath it to the city of Philadelphia as a free museum. But financial difficulties intervened, and the design was not accomplished. The Chinese collection was re- moved about 1842-43. The lower room, thence famil- iarly known as the Chinese Museum, although no museum was there, was thrown open for use for balls, concerts, public meetings, exhibitions, etc. Peale's museum, in the upper story, had a longer tenancy. After the novelty had ceased and the receipts had begun to fall off seriously, the managers instituted additional attractions in the shape of cheap concerts. Norton, the trumpeter, Mrs. Watson, and Mrs. Bailly were principal attractions. After them came the Shaws, - Rosina (afterward Mrs. Charles Howard and Mrs. Harry Watkins, actress), Mary (afterward Mrs. Fogg, afterward Mrs. Krollman), Josephine (afterward Mrs. Russell and Mrs. John Hoey), and David T. Shaw. Prices came down. The Norton & Watson concerts were fifty cents admission,-twenty- five cents to the museum and twenty-five cents for the music. The Shaw concerts fell to twenty-five cents. At a later day "levy" concerts were given in the museum and in the hall of the Chinese Museum. The programmes were of immense length, sometimes having upon them thirty-five pieces, including marches by brass bands, serious and comic songs, quartets, choruses, violin and piano solos, with perhaps a reci- pied for many purposes. The genial Signor Antonio Blitz, magician and ventriloquist, popular with old and young, held the place for his winter exhibitions for many years. Other performers of various kinds, elocutionists, vocalists, musicians, orators, and lec- turers, on week-days, alternated on Sundays with cler- gymen and religious congregations. The well-known Francis Fauvel Gouraud attempted here to teach some hundred ladies and gentlemen " the art of memory," and failed, as many of them declared, miserably. Monster balls on behalf of the Catholic benevolent institutions on St. Patrick's Day, with a few after-dem- onstrations, closed out the season of gayety which com- menced about the beginning of November, and led off about that time with the grand fancy costume ball of the Maennerchor, succeeded by balls under the auspices of fire companies, military companies, and other organizations. All the great public meetings came to be held as matter of course in the Chinese Museum, which was the popular, but not accurate, name given to the whole building. The Franklin Institute held its annual exhibitions there, occupying both rooms and making a temporary apartment for the display of stoves, grates, and machinery out of the alley on the north, which being floored and boarded over with a temporary roof made a long, narrow gallery. The Horticultural Society held its annual floral shows in September and October. Po- litical meetings by all parties were held in the first and second stories.

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

It was estimated that from three to four thousand persons could find standing-room in the Chinese Museum apartment. The upper story, upon floor and gallery, had room for five or six thousand. There were frequently held important conventions and con- gresses. In 1847 the Whig national convention met there and nominated Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore for President and Vice-President of the United States. The grand banquet by citizens of Philadelphia to the returned volunteers from Mexico took place in the museum room, July 24, 1848. The celebration of the arrival of the "City of Glasgow" steamship, a fine affair, took place there Jan. 11, 1851. The last grand occasion upon which this build- ing was employed was the great consolidation ball and banquet, March 11, 1854. In less than four months after this time the building was in ashes, the flames having been communicated from the National Theatre immediately north of it, which took place July 5, 1854. Isaac Brown Parker, the original owner of the ground, as well as that north of it, occupied by the theatre, had become repossessed by sheriff sales upon his mortgages. He held the vacant lots for some years, and sold them finally to the Butler House Hotel Company, which erected a grand build- ing, extending on Ninth from Chestnut Street to Sansom, along Chestnut to the full width of the Na- tional Theatre lot, along Sansom to the extreme east boundary of the museum property, which they fiu- ished and opened for guests for the first time on the 13th of February, 1860, and called the building the Continental Hotel.

Daniel Bowen came to Philadelphia in 1790, and opened a wax-work exhibition and museum of paiut- ings and curiosities. In 1795 he took his collection to Boston, where it became the foundation of the Columbian Museum. He gave as one of his reasons for this removal "a desire to avoid a continued com- petition with my particular friend Charles W. Peale, a distinguished artist of Philadelphia." Bowen's Boston Museum was burned twice. After the second disaster, about the year 1810, he came back to Phila- delphia, where he resided until his death, in 1856, at the extreme age of ninety-six years. Ile was a native of Massachusetts, and had served in the privateer "Providence" during the Revolution. While on board of that vessel he was taken prisoner and carried to England, where he was confined for some time in a prison.

A shameless exhibition was announced on the 21st November, 1794, in the following curious advertise- ment :

'E EXHIBITION OF FIGURES IN COMPOSITION AT FULL LENGTH1, Corner of Second and Callowbli Streets, at the sign of the Black Bear.

"The late king of Franco, together with his queen taking her last farewell of him in the temple the day preceding his execution. The whole in a striking likeness, in full stuture, and dressed us they were nt the time.

right side, overwhelmed with sorrow and ready to faint, the king look- ing tenderly at her.

"Second is the scaffold on which he was executed, whereupon the king stands in full view of the guillotine. Before him is a priest on his knees, with a crucifix in one hand and a prayer-bouk in the other. On the side of the guillotine stands the executioner, prepared to do bia duty.

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 24

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992