Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/240

236 the call of the directors of the New York Museum, he became manager of it.

The sons of Peale who had real tastes in zoology were both of the name of Titian. Titian Peale, by Charles Willson's first wife, was becoming a naturalist of great promise and of great help to his father, when he died at the age of eighteen. In memory of this son Peale named a child by his second wife Titian. This Titian became an ornithologist of some distinction, and was conservator of the collections of the Philadelphia Museum for many years.

As we have seen, Charles Willson Peale was an enthusiastic collector. The object of these collections was the education of the public. Peale's ideas as to the function of museums are best illustrated by some extracts from a lecture introductory to a series of forty that he delivered in the winter of 1800-1801. He wrote that a museum should teach the economic use of animals and plants. Says Peale:

A museum should exert a moral influence in the community. Said the lecturer:

After giving a brief account of the history of the museums in the world, from the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, he describes his ideal museum. Says he:

First let us suppose we have before us a spacious building. . . in which are arranged all the various animals of this vast continent and all other countries. Let us suppose them classically arranged so that the mind may not be confused and distracted in viewing and studying such a vast multitude of objects. Here should be no duplicates and only the varieties of each species, all