The Mastodon in the Pit

How a Revolutionary War Painter Changed American Natural History

Charles Willson Peale, Exhumation of the Mastodon, ca. 1806–08, oil on canvas, 49 x 61 1/2 in., Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore City Life Museum Collection, Gift of Bertha White in memory of her husband, Harry White, BCLM-MA.5911.

Later this month, I’m giving a talk about “Animals in New York” in conjunction with the Pets and the City exhibition currently on view at The New York Historical (née the New-York Historical Society). The artist, inventor, and naturalist Charles Willson Peale will be featured in the talk—a lovely family portrait featuring their dog is in the show—and mastodons will be also featured in the talk. However, Charles Willson Peale’s very own mastodon is a story too long and too tangential for me to include in the presentation, so I’m going to share it here, for my paid subscribers.

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Charles Willson Peale is probably best known to most people for his portraits of George Washington painted during the American Revolution, such as the one below from 1780-82, now in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.