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Titian Ramsay Peale, artist naturalist, was born in Philadelphia, the youngest son of Charles Willson Peale, who at that time was deeply involved with his museum. The Peales collected and mounted specimens of natural history for display. They were thus in close touch with the group of pioneer natural scientists, including Alexander Lawson, George Ord, and Thomas Say in Philadelphia. As early as 1816 young Peale was making drawings of butterflies for Thomas Say's
On November 26, 1817 he was elected a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In December 1817, he joined Ord, Say and the geologist William Maclure on a collecting expedition to Florida and Georgia. This was the first of several scientific expeditions on which he would serve as artist naturalist. In 1819-1820 he was a member of the Stephen H. Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. Married in 1820, Peale lived mostly in Philadelphia between 1821 and 1838. He managed the family museum while pursuing his interests in natural history and publishing and illustrating articles in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He made collecting trips to Maine, Florida, and South America, and in 1832 he issued an illustrated prospectus for a book on butterflies,
In December of 1836 Peale was appointed to the Scientific Corps as zoologist and naturalist to the proposed United States South Sea Surveying and Exploring Expedition under the command of Captain Charles Wilkes. The expedition took four years, during which time they traversed the Atlantic. Returning to the U.S. in June 1842, the whole group of Peale's collections of specimens had been lost in a shipwreck.
From 1843 through 1848 Peale spent most of his time in Washington working on the text and drawings for volume 8 of the Wilkes Expedition reports,
In August 1848 Peale became an Assistant Examiner in the U.S. patent office, where he remained until 1877. During these years he did a number of oil paintings, some based on sketches and drawings made during his many years of exploring. He continued to prepare his text and drawings for his proposed volume,
Includes 2 unpublished drawings of reptiles, 1 drawing and 3 engravings of shells and animal fossils, and a copper printing plate of beetles. Also includes 3 unpublished watercolors of lepidoptera, with accompanying manuscripts, thought to be by Peale. The items are thought to have been created between ca. 1824 and 1835, while Peale was living in Philadelphia and managing the family museum and pursuing his natural history interests. Items measure from 20 x 14 cm. to 30 x 20 cm.
Organized into the following subseries:
None.
Cite as: Collection 55B. Titain Ramsay Peale Illustrations. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Acquired from various sources, noted within.
Finding aid created by Mary Hammer, 2002.
Published as an engraving in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Vol. 6, Plate 6.
4 figures depict the front and back of the shell, hinge of the upper and lower valve.
Title taken from the Journal.
Plate mark partially removed.
"Titian Peale - del. Lawson -sc." -- on verso.
Plate mark partially removed.
Published in "New Species of Manatus", Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. 3, plate 13.
Depicts the lateral view of the head, lower jaw, opening of the anterior nares.
These two illustrations by Titian R. Peale were originally inserted in the editor's copy of Vol. 6 of the first series of the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Unpublished, they were designed to illustrate the article "Description of two new Species of the Linnean Genus Lacerta" by T.R. Peale and J. Green, M.D. (JANSP vol.6: 231-234).
Title taken from the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Vol. 6, pg. 231.
Upper middle includes pencilled note in an unidentified hand: "Unpublished".
Lower left includes pencilled note in unidentified hand: T.R. Peale del."
Light brown lizard with light stripes from neck to tail, a darker brown collar, and spiny tail.
Description in the Journal differs in color from the illustration.
Title taken from note on verso.
Title taken from the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Vol. 6, pg. 233.
Lower left includes pencilled note in unidentified hand: T.R. Peale del."
Light brown skink with darker spots.
Description in the Journal differs in color from the illustration.
Title taken from note on verso.
"J.B. Keim Phila" -- engraved on verso.
Depicts 7 Blister beetles.
Found enclosed in an envelope in the back of Peale's
Depicts the caterpillar crawling along a sprig of wild blackberry, a cocoon hanging from the sprig, the pupa, and the moth.
Common name:
Sci name:
Includes a separate page of handwritten notes, titled: "Order, Lepidoptera. Family Phalona. . . Genus, Saturnia, Sp. Saturnica cecropia".
Peale's notes: "The eggs from which the larva of this Phalona are hatched are of a light orange color, shaded with brown spots, and about one fourteenth of an inch in diameter. They are usually deposited on the leaves of the Inglaus spuamoba, or those of the Rubus villosus. The caterpillar when fully grown is nearly four inches in length, & five eighths of an inch in diameter; and with his anuature of spines, presents at first view, rather a disagreeable & repulsive appearance but on a closer & more leisurely inspection our disgust is changed into admiration. Feet, six squamous or hooked, & ten membranous, tipped with blue & armed with fine spicula. Head, squamous; furnished with strong mandibles - color of cuticle, brownish green. Stigmata, nine on each side, with one on the first ring of the neck, blue tinged with purple. Two rows of blue setaceous spines run the whole length of the insect, on each side of the stigmata; while on the five first perfect annuli of the body, & two of the neck there are three rows, making in all thirty five spines on each side. The tenth, & three first annuli, ornamented with procepes, nearly two eighths of an inch high, terminated by yellow globes, dotted with purple. The six middle & two last annuli, armed with two dorsal rows of yellow spines, terminating in blue hairs, or spicula. The la[rv]a is a most voracious feeder, & attains its growth about the last of august, whence seeks some secure spot to fix its silken covert, generally the underside of a branch. The cocoon is sometimes three inches in length & two in diameter, including its covering or mantle. The crysalis is about 1 5/8 inch in length, & 8/8 in diameter - color a deep glossy brow[n] [b]eautifully proportioned - about the cast of f. . . [chunk of paper missing] . . .ve, the insect having become perfected, bu. . . [paper missing] shell of the crysalis on the back, and softening the end of the coccoon with a fluid prepared for that purpose, it emerges a beautiful flying animate. The anexed drawings gives a tolerably correct view of the Saturnia in its different stages of existence - superior wings, when expanded, six & a fourth inches across. Body, one inch & 3/4 in length, & half an inch in thickness. The female abdomen, before ovation is considerably thicker. Thorax covered with red, hairy feathers - abdomen, with six annuli, and as many white rings between - neck orange - antenna, brown, plumrose - three fourths of an inch long & 3/8 wide. Inferior wings, a deep brown, bordered with slate colored waving lines & short transverse bands of red & white with a pear shaped spot in the centre. Superior wings finely maculated with grey, bordered with deep arched lines of brown, orange, & red; near the tips of the wings a light blue losenge, over deep purple ocelli - near the centre of each wing, an irregular, pear shaped spot, red, shaded with orange & bordered with deep purple - long red, feathering hairs, near the humoral articulations of the wings, encircled by a pale white band - legs & feet, brick red. By assiduous cultivation, in the course of a few years, the rambling habits of these insects would be overcome, and from the great size of the coccoons, a profitable return would be made to the cultivator. The sick, although coarse, might be wrought into cloth of great strength & durability, suitable for outer garments, if not for nicer wear."
Depicts the caterpillar crawling along the limb of a quince with fruit, pupa, and moth.
Common name:
Sci name:
Includes a separate page of handwritten notes, titled: "Family, Crepuscularia. Genus, Sphinx. Sphinx cydonia."
Peale's notes: "Superior wings, four & a half inches across - fine villous surface, variegated with deep sea green, eight brown & small transverse lines of red - Inferior wings same colour, with transverse zigzag lines of red, & deeply shaded with purple - under sides, pale olive, with transverse lines of deep green - Thorax, dark sea green, covered with hairs - abdomen, conical - pale olive, with ash colord annuli, & without a terminal brush - antenna ash colord - prismatic & ending in a hook. Larva, three inches in length, & half an inch in diameter - cuticle, eight green, with nine conspicuous silver puneta on each side. It was found feeding on the leaves of the garden quince. The last of September, after being fed a few days, it entered the earth & in about a week, the crysalis, which is two inches in length, terminating in a sharp curved spine, was taken up & preserved in cotton, untill the first of June following, when it burst its shell & appeared in a dress[?] & form, superior to any of its family known in this vicinity. I had two of the larva, but one escaped, allthough the cover of the box was confined by a weight of six or eight pounds."
Depicts the caterpillar crawling along a birch limb with fruit, the cocoon, pupa, and moth.
Common name:
Sci name:
Includes a separate page of handwritten notes, titled: "Order, Lepidoptera. Family Phalona. Saturnia polyphemus".
Peale's notes: "The larva of this beautiful Phalona is three & a half inches in length & five eighths in diameter, when fully grown, & feeds on the leaves of the morusnubra[?], in the fields & woodlands of Ohio & western states. The eggs are deposited by the female in a few days after leaving its pupa state, or as soon as the can meet with the male to impregnate them. This usually takes place the last of May, or first of June, in the latitude of marietta. The caterpillar at maturity is rather a beautiful than a disgusting object. Its smooth, pale orange green, colord cuticle, ornamented along its side, with nine silver colord stigmata, with its plump & healthy appearance, give it a noble & striking aspect. By the last of August or first of September, it is ready to spin its silken envelope, & seeks some retired spot where it may work unmolested. Those which I have fed & nursed, were confined in a box, with some loose scraps of paper, as soon as their wandering propensity appeared, in some fold of which, they usually spun the cocoon. The crysalis is shorter & thicker in proportion to its length than that of the S. cacropia. the coccoon smaller but more compact, & the thread much finer & whiter. Superior wings when expanded, nearly six inches across, triangular & deeply arcuated on the outer margin, orange colord. Shaded with grey on the upper slope & tips, one hyaline ocellum in each wing surrounded by yellow & brown, with a vertical & horizontal waving line near the articulation of the white & brown. Inferior wings light, rich brown, bordered with a broad orange band, within which is one of white & purple - one large oval, deep purple spot, shaded in the center with blue & a hyaline ocellum, fringed with yellow ornaments the center of each - antenna, light brown, plumrose - body deep orange, nearly red, covered with fine feathery hairs - It is a splendid & beautiful work of the Creator."