Charles Willson Peale
An American polymath who painted the Founding Fathers, founded the nation's first major museum, and excavated mastodon bones.
1741–1827 (age 86)·American painter, military officer, scientist, and naturalist·Birthday: April 15
Biography
Charles Willson Peale's life reads like a catalog of early American endeavor. Best known for his vivid, character-revealing portraits of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and other revolutionaries, Peale believed art served public education. This conviction led him to establish the Philadelphia Museum in 1786, a sprawling collection of portraits, natural history specimens, and technological curiosities housed in Independence Hall. It was America's first popular museum. His scientific curiosity was boundless; he personally excavated and assembled the skeletons of two mastodons near Newburgh, New York, a feat that captivated the young nation and challenged European theories about New World species. A veteran of the Continental Army, a state legislator, and a founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Peale embodied the Enlightenment ideal of the engaged citizen. He even named many of his seventeen children after artists and scientists, including Rembrandt, Rubens, and Titian.
#1 When Charles Was Born
The biggest hits of 1741
Charles's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1741Born
1746Started school
1754Became a teenager
1757Could drive
1759Could vote
1762Turned 21
1771Turned 30
1781Turned 40
1791Turned 50
1801Turned 60
1811Turned 70
1821Turned 80
1827Died at 86
Key Achievements
- Painted over sixty portraits of George Washington from life, creating the definitive early image of the first president.
- Founded the Philadelphia Museum in 1786, considered the first major American museum of art and natural history.
- Successfully excavated, reconstructed, and displayed the first complete mastodon skeleton in the United States.
- Helped establish the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1805.
Did You Know?
He was a saddle-maker by trade before learning painting to avoid debtor's prison.
He served as a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Two of his sons, Rembrandt and Raphaelle, became celebrated painters in their own right.
His museum featured a live parrot that would greet visitors by saying, 'Pretty Polly, want a cracker?'
“The object of my museum is to amuse and instruct the mind.”
