As a result of this, a board of visitors or directors was formed of twenty-five individuals. Thomas Jefferson was elected president, and among the others present were Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thos. Mifflin, Robert Morris, David Rittenhouse and Dr. Caspar Wistar. In the registration book of season ticket holders for the year 1794, the first signature is that of George Washington, who signed for four tickets. Then follow the names of John Adams, Munroe, etc. The fact that he was able to procure the aid of such men and the fact that he was allowed the use of Independence Hall rent free for a time and later for a nominal rental, all show that the museum was recognized as a valuable institution.
The decades 1790-1810, during which Peale was most active, composed part of the period of American zoology called by Brown Goode[1] the period of Jefferson. The influence that the great statesman exerted Goode compared to that of Agassiz in a later period. Among the medical profession of the country were a few men interested in natural history. These centered about the newly founded medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. The ones only that might be placed in a class with Jefferson were Caspar Wistar and Benjamin Smith Barton. Later may be mentioned the names of Wilson, Ord and Rafinesque.
At this time the pure sciences centered around the American Philosophical Society. The minute books of the society show that from the time that Peale was elected a member in 1786, he was rarely absent from a meeting. Renting, as he did, a large part of the hall and being librarian and curator, he was for many years closely identified with it.
In 1804, Baron Humboldt, Bompland, the botanist, and a Peruvian gentleman, Montrefar, arrived in Philadelphia from the famous trip to South America. Peale was a member of an informal committee from the Philosophical Society to see to their reception. The committee went with the travelers to Washington, where they were entertained by President Jefferson. Of this journey Peale writes to his brotherin-law in New York:
However, I have been richly repaid for the expense and trouble of a journey, by the agreeable conversation of Baron Humboldt, who is, without exception, the most extraordinary traveler I have ever met with; he is a fountain of knowledge that flows in copious streams; to drop this metaphore, he is a great luminary diffusing light in every branch of science, I say diffusing because he is so communicative of his knowledge, which has been treasured up in his travels of upward of nineteen years.
The Baron sat before Peale for his portrait and on sailing for France Peale presented him with a mounted specimen of an alligator. This
- ↑ Brown Goode, "Beginnings of American Science," Proc. Bio. Sci. Wash., Vol. IV. . 85.
