Baltimore Museum account book

In 1814, Rembrandt Peale established the Peale Museum in Baltimore. 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.

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. The museum closed in 1829.