Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/237

Rh resigned the active management of the museum and moved to his "Belfield" place, at Germantown. With him old age was robbed of its infirmities. Temperate habits, outdoor exercise and constant employment of mind and body, were responsible, according to his own theories, for the vigor that he enjoyed at eighty. He was eighty-three when he painted without his glasses a full-length portrait of himself by order of the trustees of the museum. This is the portrait that now hangs in the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, an institution of which he was the chief founder. These latter years of his life were not marked by reduced activities, but by more varied occupations. His attempts to make porcelain teeth and similar undertakings have been unduelyunduly [sic] emphasized. Undoubtedly it is the memory of this period that has led many of his biographers to refer to him as a "jack of all trades."

It may be interesting to outline briefly the later history of the museum and the fate of its collections.

In the first decade of the nineteenth century the value of the collections was from an educational point of view equal to those of the famous museums of Europe. At this time, with a view to its preservation and to carry out a cherished hope, Peale offered it to the government at Washington to form the nucleus of a National Museum. According to Jeffersonian simplicity it was not in the province of the government to father institutions not directly connected with government, so the offer was refused.

In 1816 the city purchased the State House from the state; and, at once, raised the rent on Peale from $400 to $2,000. As Peale could not pay so much, a compromise was made for $1,200. The museum was run at a loss for three years, at the end of which time Peale induced councils to lower the rent to $600. About this time Peale offered the museum to the city on condition that they would agree to house, add to it, and promise not to sell any part of it except duplications. The city refused to accept the gift.

In 1821 the museum took another lease of life, and its aged proprietor, still fearing that it would become divided on his death, had it incorporated with five trustees, all, except one, members of his family. As organized, four professors were appointed to give lectures in Natural History, viz.: