Peale Museum

The Peale, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is Baltimore's Community Museum. Its mission is to evolve the role of museums in society by providing local creators and storytellers with the space and support the need to realize a complete and accessible cultural legacy for the city of Baltimore. In August 2022, The Peale held a grand re-opening ceremony after the completion of a five-year restoration process. The Peale occupies the first building in the Western Hemisphere to be designed and built specifically as a museum. The museum was imagined by American artist and inventor Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860) and designed by architect Robert Cary Long, Sr. Peale's original museum closed in 1829. The building later served as Baltimore's City Hall from 1830 to 1875 after which it became the Male and Female Colored School No. 1 from 1878 to 1887. The school was one of the first grammar schools and the first high school for African American students in Baltimore. History In 1814, artist Rembrandt Peale established The Peale Museum at 225 North Holliday Street between East Saratoga and East Lexington streets in Baltimore. Rembrandt was the second son of artist and museum founder Charles Willson Peale. Rembrandt Peale's museum was dubbed as "Peale's Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts" and featured portraits of famous Americans, including some by its founder, as well as the complete skeleton of a prehistoric mastodon exhumed by Charles Willson Peale in 1801. During the Battle of Baltimore a month after opening, Rembrandt Peale, his wife, and seven children spent the night in the museum hoping that the British military would think the museum was their home and spare the building.