Drawing of Peale's Mastodon
Item
Creator
de Montule, Edouard
Title
Drawing of Peale's Mastodon
Description
"In 1806, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark returned from their historic expedition, the greatest curiosity on display in the new republic was the eleven-foot-tall skeleton of the American incognitum, or “mammoth.” The animal’s bones were a prize attraction at the Philadelphia Museum owned by the portrait artist and polymath Charles Willson Peale. Peale’s American incognitum was famous throughout the land thanks to newspaper reports, museum exhibits, and President Thomas Jefferson´s well-publicized efforts to acquire its bones" (Semolina)
Date
1816
Source
Common Place: The Journal of Early American Life
Contributor
Vela, Jaimie