The Peale is a community museum in Baltimore, Maryland, which opened in 2022 after a 5-year renovation. It occupies the first building in the Western Hemisphere to be designed and built specifically as a museum.
The Peale | |
 Museum building in 2013 | |
    | |
| Location | 225 North Holliday Street, Baltimore, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°17′30.89″N 76°36′38.28″W / 39.2919139°N 76.6106333°W |
| Built | 1814 |
| Architect | Robert Carey Long, Sr. |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| Website | thepeale.org |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000915 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966[1] |
| Designated NHL | December 21, 1965[2] |
| Designated BCL | 1971 |
Rembrandt Peale's original museum was open from 1814 until 1829. The collection was moved to a new building as the Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts. The original building later served as Baltimore's City Hall from 1830 to 1875 and from 1878 to 1887 as one of the first grammar schools and the first high school for African-American students in Baltimore.
The Building was renovated and rededicated in 1931 as the Municipal Museum of Baltimore. It was renovated again starting in 1978 and was reopened in 1981 as the Peale Museum. The Municipal Museum closed in 1997 and the entire collection was moved to the Maryland Historical Society.
History
editPeale's Baltimore Museum
editIn 1814, artist Rembrandt Peale established "Peale's Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts" at 225 North Holliday Street between East Saratoga and East Lexington streets in Baltimore. Rembrandt was the second son of Charles Willson Peale, the artist and founder of Peale's Philadelphia Museum. The museum occupied the first building in the Western Hemisphere to be designed and built specifically as a museum.[3] It was designed by architect Robert Cary Long, Sr.[4] Rembrandt Peale's museum featured portraits of famous Americans, including some by its founder, as well as the complete skeleton of a prehistoric mastodon exhumed by Charles Willson Peale in 1801.[5] During the Battle of Baltimore a month after opening, Rembrandt Peale, his wife, and seven children spent the night in the museum hoping that the British military would think the museum was their home and spare the building.[6]
The fame of Peale's museum was such that it was occasionally described as simply the "Baltimore Museum."[7] Rembrandt's brother, Rubens Peale, managed the museum until 1829.[8]
Extensive reviews by John Neal of the museum's annual exhibitions in 1822 and 1823 are some of the earliest published works of American art criticism.[9]
The museum was the first building in Baltimore to have gas lighting.[10]
In 1829, the museum building was sold due to financial difficulties and the exhibits were moved to a newly constructed building on the northwest corner of North Calvert Street and East Baltimore Street, one block south of the Battle Monument Square and the Baltimore City Courthouse. This second building became the Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts (also known as the Baltimore Museum Theatre) in 1834.[11]
Other uses
editFrom 1830 to 1875, the museum's former building served as the first Baltimore City Hall.[12]
The building was turned over to the city's Board of School Commissioners and the Baltimore City Public Schools. In 1878, it became the Male and Female Colored School No. 1.[12] The school, which operated until 1887, was one of the first grammar schools and the first high school for African American students in Baltimore.[13] The high school, which opened in 1883, was the predecessor of Frederick Douglass High School.[14]
The building housed the Bureau of Water Supply from 1887 to 1916[5] and was rented by various shops and factories from 1916 to 1928.
Modern museums
editBy 1928, the building had been repeatedly condemned and was in danger of demolition. It was renovated and rededicated in 1931 as the Municipal Museum of Baltimore.[12] The renovation of the building was supervised by John Henry Scarff, a Baltimore-born architect, painter, and archaeologist, who later worked closely on policies governing looted art and damaged monuments during and after World War II.[15]
The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.[5]
The building underwent a major two-year renovation starting in 1978 and was reopened in 1981 as the Peale Museum. In 1985, the Peale Museum became part of the Baltimore City Life Museums (BCLM), a consortium of historic homes, building and sites.[5][16]
BCLM folded in 1997 and the entire Peale Museum collection was moved to the Maryland Historical Society, now called the Maryland Center for History and Culture, leaving the original building on North Holliday Street vacant until it was reopened for periodic public programs and events in 2017.
In 2014, a campaign was being waged by a Maryland group to raise $4 million for restoration of the museum.[17] The restoration project was completed in 2022 and "the Peale", "Baltimore’s Community Museum" opened in August 2022.[18]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ "Peale's Baltimore Museum". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
- ^ Mendinghall, Joseph S. (February 28, 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination: Peale's Baltimore Museum". National Park Service. Retrieved March 30, 2009.
- ^ "Long Sr., Robert Cary — Baltimore Architecture Foundation". Retrieved June 4, 2021.
- ^ a b c d "National Register Properties in Maryland". mht.maryland.gov. Archived from the original on May 24, 2022. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
- ^ "History of the Peale". The Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
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.
- ^ Orkaby, Asher; Goodall, Jamie; Muir, Meaghan L.; Desai, Sukumar P. (2020). "Padihershef: The MGH Mummy Who Oversaw Two Centuries of Medicine and Egyptology". Massachusetts Historical Review. 21: 143. JSTOR 27023727.
For six weeks in June and July 1824, Padihershef resided in Baltimore, primarily at the Baltimore Museum on Holliday Street, where he raked in an astonishing $1,842.
- ^ "Peale Museum · Built to Last: Enduring Landmark's of Baltimore Central Business District · Baltimore Heritage Digital Collections". collection.baltimoreheritage.org. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
- ^ Chico, Beverly Berghaus (Fall 1976). "Two American Firsts: Sarah Peale, Portrait Painter, and John Neal, Critic" (PDF). Maryland Historical Magazine. 71 (3): 349–358.
- ^ "Built to Last: Peale Museum" (PDF). National Park Service - Built to Last. 1.
- ^ Mitchell, Charles (2024). The Golden Age of Baltimore Theater: A History from Shakespeare to Vaudeville. The History Press. ISBN 9781467154482.
- ^ a b c "Built To Last: Ten Enduring Landmarks of Baltimore's Central Business District: Heritage Documentation Programs--HABS, HAER, HALS, CRGIS--of the National Park Service". www.nps.gov. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
- ^ "Male & Female Colored School No. 1 at the Peale – The Peale". Retrieved May 27, 2022.
- ^ "Landmark Designation Report: Old Douglass High School" (PDF). Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. February 12, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ "Scarff, John H. | Monuments Men and Women | Monuments Men Foundation". MonumentsMenWomenFnd. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
- ^ "History of the Peale – The Peale". Retrieved May 27, 2022.
- ^ Wenger, Yvonne (April 4, 2014). "New life envisioned for old Peale Museum downtown". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
- ^ "Filled with firsts, the Peale reopens its historic doors as a community museum". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
External links
edit- Peale's American Museum information from the Academy of Natural Sciences
- Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. MD-398, "Rembrandt Peale Museum, 225 North Holliday Street, Baltimore, Independent City, MD]"
- Peale Museum – Explore Baltimore Heritage
- Peale's Baltimore Museum, Baltimore City, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust