The Peale

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The Peale is the oldest museum building in the United States. It was built by Rembrandt Peale, a member of the first family of American artists. Through their explorations, scientific investigations, and museum displays, the Peale family also contributed greatly to the new nation’s understanding of natural history. Rembrandt commissioned architect Robert Cary Long to design the building—essentially a Federal Period townhouse, with a rear gallery extension. It opened in August 1814. The following month, the British attacked Baltimore in the culmination of their Chesapeake campaign during the War of 1812. Afraid they would burn the city and with it his new museum, as they had the Capitol and the White House in Washington, D. C., Rembrandt, his pregnant wife and their seven children spent the night in the building during the Fort McHenry bombardment, hoping that the British would think it was their residence and spare it. From 1878-1889, the Peale was part of the new public school system being developed in Baltimore to provide free education to African Americans in the city. Known as “Male and Female Colored School Number 1,” the building was the site of one of the first grammar schools in Baltimore’s Colored School system, and the first High School available to people of color in the State of Maryland.

Images

The facade of the Peale building in 2018.

The facade of the Peale building in 2015, prior to renovation.

The garden area behind the Peale in July 2019, after being cleaned up.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

Rembrandt Peale, son of American artist Charles Willson Peale, created this oil on canvas self portrait in 1828. He commissioned Robert Cary Long to design the Peale building. The featured exhibit at the opening was the famous skeleton of the mastodon unearthed by Rembrandt’s father, Charles Willson Peale. Also displayed were military artifacts and stuffed birds, animals, and fish.

In 1816, Rembrandt Peale illuminated one of his painting galleries with a “magic ring” of pearls of light—carbureted hydrogen gas. That same year he established, with a group of investors, the Gas Light Company of Baltimore. The first commercial gas light company in America, it grew into the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company and Constellation Energy, now Exelon. Learn about Baltimore in 1814-1815.

Art exhibits were a mainstay of the museum. An 1823 catalog lists the following artists whose works were on display: Leonardo da Vinci, Gainsborough, Breughel, Reynolds, Bosch, van de Velde, Ruysdael, Kauffman, Claude Lorrain, Poussin, Velasquez, Canaletto, Raphael, Sully. The exhibit also included works by Charles Willson Peale, then the foremost portrait painter in the country, and by members of his artistic extended family, Raphaelle, Rembrandt, and Sarah Miriam Peale. Baltimore collectors lent most of the paintings.

Shortly after Peale’s Museum closed in 1829, the City of Baltimore bought the building for use as the City Hall (1830-1875). Following construction of the present City Hall, the Peale Museum building became the Male and Female Colored School Number 1 (1878-1887), which marked the beginning of public secondary education for African-Americans in Baltimore. The Bureau of Water Supply occupied it next (1887-1916). The building was finally turned into rental space for shops and factories (1916-1928).

Sources

The Peale. History of the Peale, February 24th 2016. Accessed October 20th 2020. https://www.thepealecenter.org/history/.

Perservation Maryland. Best of Maryland: The Peale Center for Baltimore History & Architecture, April 17th 2019. Accessed October 20th 2020. https://www.preservationmaryland.org/best-of-maryland-the-peale-center-for-baltimore-history-architecture/.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

The Peale, Baltimore

Daisy Brown, Peale Photographer

Additional Information

About the Peale