Selected papers from the Peale-Sellers collection
name: label: Creator
content: Peale, Charles Willson, 1741-1827
label: Names
content: Peale's Museum (Philadelphia, Pa.)
label: Names
content: Peale, Franklin, 1795-1870
label: Names
content: Peale, James, 1749-1831
label: Names
content: Peale, Rubens, 1784-1865
label: Names
content: Peale, Titian Ramsay, 1799-1885
label: Names
content: Sellers, Horace Wells, 1857-1933
topic: label: Occupation
content: Miniature painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Occupation
content: Portrait painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Occupation
content: Architects -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Occupation
content: Naturalists -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Topic
content: Miniature painting -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Topic
content: Portrait painting -- 18th century -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Topic
content: Portrait painting -- 19th century -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Lent for microfilming, 1955, by the American Philosophical Society, Peale-Sellers Collection.
creator: label: Creator
content: Peale, Charles Willson, 1741-1827
setName: label: See more items in
content: Selected papers from the Peale-Sellers collection
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: The Peale family was a family of painters, primarily in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) was a portrait painter and engraver and studied in London with Benjamin West. He is known for his portraits of the founding fathers including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. In 1786 he founded the Peale Museum, and was one of the founding members of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1805. 

James Peale (1749-1831) was a painter who specialized in miniature portraits, and later painted larger scale portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. As the younger brother of Charles Willson Peale, he worked as his brother's studio assistant and there received his first painting education. 

Rubens Peale (1784-1865) opened the New York Museum of Natural History and Science in 1825. Following the economic Panic of 1837, Rubens became a gentleman farmer in the Pennsylvania countryside. He returned to Philadelphia in 1864 and began painting still lifes. 

Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) was a naturalist, photographer, and scientific illustrator. Named for an older brother who died in 1798, he was the only naturalist in the family and documented animals and scenery in watercolors on scientific expeditions including the 1819 Long expedition to the Rocky Mountains. 

Benjamin Franklin Peale (1795-1870), called Franklin, was his father's assistant at the museum and managed it after Charles Peale's death. Franklin Peale was also an employee of the Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. 

Horace Wells Sellers (1857-1933) was an engineer and architect in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Charles Willson Peale's great great grandson.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 7 Microfilm reels
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1767-1904
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.pealchar
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Microfilm reels
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: 35mm microfilm reels P31-P37 available for use at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
originalsloc: label: Existence and Location of Originals
content: Originals in the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The microfilmed selected papers from the Peale-Sellers collection contain autobiographical and biographical material; letters; writings; printed material; photographs; a sketchbook; drawings; and notebooks belonging to Charles Willson Peale and the Peale family with notes and writings by Horace Wells Sellers.  

The Charles Willson Peale material includes part of the preliminary draft of his autobiography (circa 1790) and a typed copy with notes and addenda by Horace Wells Sellers; typescripts of letterbooks (1767-1827); a list of portraits and Washington portrait material; a notebook pertaining to paintings and a memo book containing recipes for medicines, colors, and notes on painting technique; lectures and essays on natural history, health, domestic happiness, and Peale's museum; and letters from John De Peyster. 

Peale family material includes James Peale's sketchbook; Rubens Peale's letterbooks (1802-1824), lists of pictures painted at Riverside Farm, and memorandum on his life; writings by Titian Ramsay Peale on techniques of miniature painting and a biography of Charles Willson; and letters of Titian and Franklin Peale (1831-1869), with biographical comments by Sellers. 

Also included are a history of the United Bowmen of Philadelphia, a club Titian and Franklin belonged to; material on Peale's Museum including correspondence, minutes, articles of incorporation, and a handbook with a partial description of the museum's contents; Peale family photographs; and drawings and silhouettes.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Archives of American Art holds the Rembrandt and Harriet Peale collection, circa 1820-1932 and the Rubens Peale diaries, 1855-1865. Also found at the Archives of American Art are the microfilmed Charles Willson Peale diaries and exhibition announcement, 1765-1826; microfilmed printed material relating to Rembrandt Peale, 1830-1862; microfilmed Titian Ramsay Peale Collection, 1771-1876; microfilmed Selected Peale family papers, 1803-1854; and microfilmed Augusta Barker papers, 1875-1887. The American Philosophical Society holds the Peale-Sellers Family Collection, 1686-1963 and the Peale family papers, 1705-1898.