Peale's Museum (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Peale's Museum was established by Charles Willson Peale in 1784. It was public rather than private in character and was governed initially by a Society of Visitors. The museum was moved to the Hall of the American Philosophical Society in 1794 and in 1802 by act of the Pennsylvania Assembly it ws granted the free use of the State House (Independence Hall) recently vacated by the legislature. It was subsequently incorporated as the Philadelphia Museum Company under the direction of a board of trustees. The museum met with financial difficulties in th 1830s, and the collections were sold in parts, the portraits being the last to be sold in 1854.