Born in Chester, Maryland in 1741, Charles Willson Peale became one of the major figures in American art and in other areas such as military figure, naturalist, curator, and inventor. He developed an art and natural history museum that became world famous, especially for the gallery of artwork that had his more than 250 portraits of distinguished Americans. In his home, Peale charged admission to persons to see his depictions of American heroes. By 1788, he opened a natural history museum in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and eventually accumulated over 100,000 items that included paintings, fossils, minerals, stuffed animals, and skeletons.

In 1795, he opened his own art academy, which was not a success, and in 1805, he became o...