USA
1955
"150th Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts"
| Issue Date |
15.01.1955 |
| ID |
Michel: 684:
Scott: 1064;
Stanley Gibbons: 1066;
Yvert: 591;
Co,
pF.
|
| Designer |
Designers: Victor S. McCloskey, Jr.
Engraver: Charles A. Brooks and Robert J. Jones
|
| Stamps in set |
1 |
| Value |
3c - Charles Willson Peale with objects from his museum |
| Emission/Type |
commemorative |
| Places of issue |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Size (width x height) |
26mm x 40mm |
| Layout |
Sheet of 50 stamps (10x5) |
| Products |
None |
| Paper |
No Watermark |
| Perforation |
10.5 x 11 |
| Print Technique |
Rotary Press
|
| Printed by |
Bureau of Engraving and Printing |
| Quantity |
116.139.800 |
| Issuing Authority |
U.S. Postal Service |
On January 15
th, 1955, the United States Post Office issued a stamp commemorating
the 150
th anniversary of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, founded in 1805 by portrait painter and museum founder Charles Willson Peale,
sculptor William Rush, and other civic leaders, is the oldest art museum and art school in the United States.
Its historic building, designed by architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt, was inaugurated in 1876.
The museum is internationally renowned for its collection of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century American paintings,
sculptures, and works on paper.
Recognized as a National Historic Landmark, the building underwent a major restoration in 1976.
The stamp features Charles Willson Peale’s self-portrait,
The Artist in His Museum.
Commissioned in 1822 by the trustees of his museum as a full-length likeness,
the painting was executed between 1822 and 1826 and shows many objects collected and prepared by Peale himself.
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"The Artist in His Museum" (Image credit: Wikipedia)
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The composition is organized into three spatial zones.
- In the dim foreground, Peale presents natural history specimens from his museum.
- At the lower left rests a dead wild turkey beside his taxidermy tools—brought back by his son Titian for
preservation — serving as a national symbol.
Above it, along the left edge, a mounted bald eagle forms another
American emblem and is one of Peale’s few surviving specimens.
- At the extreme left stands an upright case with a paddlefish from the Allegheny River, labeled:
Behind Peale, partly revealed by a drawn curtain, appears the reconstructed
mastodon skeleton he excavated and mounted in 1801 —
the first of its kind displayed in North America.
In tribute to this achievement, additional mastodon remains, a femur and a fragment of
jawbone, are shown in the lower right foreground.
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At eighty-one, Peale aimed to create not only a lasting monument to his career but also a design expressing
the beauties of nature and art and the rise and progress of his museum.
He hoped it would inspire admiration while remaining a faithful likeness, a determination reflected
in the two unusual preparatory versions he completed before the final painting.
Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) was an American painter, soldier, and naturalist,
best known for his portraits of leading figures of the American Revolution,
including the third U.S. president,
Thomas Jefferson,
who is often regarded as the father of American vertebrate paleontology.
His artistic and scientific pursuits converged in the founding of the Philadelphia Museum,
later known as the Peale Museum, widely regarded as the first major museum in the United States.
Its collections included botanical, zoological, and archaeological specimens, numerous bird displays,
and the celebrated mounted mastodon skeleton that symbolized both Peale’s scientific ambition and his vision
of a national museum.
Discovery of the first American Mastodon
The mastodon bones and reconstructed skeleton on the stamp belonged to the first mounted mastodon in the United States.
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Peale's Exhuming the First American Mastodon (1806).
Image credit: Wikipedia
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The discovery began in 1799, when workmen digging a marl pit on John Masten’s farm uncovered a massive femur.
Neighbors soon gathered, and a large collection of bones filled Masten’s granary.
Interest waned until 1801, when Charles Willson Peale having learned of the fossils,
visited the site to sketch and document the fossils.
Recognizing their scientific significance, he purchased the bones and secured the rights to continue
excavations for himself and other scholars.
Peale directed an ambitious excavation at Masten’s farm, though it produced little additional material.
Undeterred, he investigated nearby sites and ultimately recovered a nearly complete second skeleton at
Millspaw’s Bog. Returning to Philadelphia, he spent three months reconstructing the specimen with the guidance
of anatomist Caspar Wistar, carefully replacing missing bones with wood or papier-mâché.
The completed skeleton debuted at the American Philosophical Society in late 1801, astonishing audiences
and igniting widespread fascination with what was then called the “mammoth”.
At the time, such remains were commonly referred to as mammoth bones.
Around 1800, however, the French naturalist Georges Cuvier clarified the distinction between mastodons and mammoths,
establishing terminology that remains in use today.
After reconstructing the mastodon skeleton, Charles Willson Peale hosted a memorable dinner beneath its massive ribs
in his Philadelphia Museum in late 1801, celebrating the scientific achievement with a small group of friends and colleagues.
Peale was present at the gathering, using the event to highlight the mastodon as both a scholarly and public attraction.
Later, in 1804, another dinner was held beneath the skeleton to honor the visiting German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.
Peale’s display attracted attention in both the United States and Europe—not only for the impressive fossil itself,
but also for his innovative method of mounting large skeletons in three dimensions.
His museum was among the first in America to organize its collections according to Linnaean taxonomy,
distinguishing it from institutions that presented artifacts merely as curiosities.
Over time, the museum occupied prominent Philadelphia buildings, including Independence Hall and the original home
of the American Philosophical Society.
Despite its scientific ambition and popularity, the museum ultimately failed due to financial difficulties and Peale’s
inability to secure sustained government support. After his death, the collection was sold and dispersed by
showmen P. T. Barnum and Moses Kimball.
In 1854, the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup purchased Peale’s mastodon skeleton—the very specimen
immortalized in Peale’s painting of the 1801 excavation.
It is now on display at the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt in Germany.
Mastodon
Mastodons were large, elephant-like mammals belonging to the extinct genus
Mammut
(depicted on
the US stamp in 1996).
Although closely related to modern elephants, they were not true elephants and differed in body shape,
skull structure, and especially in their teeth.
True mastodons evolved during the late Oligocene to early Miocene, about 25–20 million years ago.
Early members of their family lived in Eurasia and later spread into North America.
The best-known species, the American mastodon (
Mammut americanum), became widespread across much of North America.
Mastodons were part of the order
Proboscidea, which also included gomphotheres,
sometimes informally called “four-tuskers”, as well as mammoths and modern elephants.
Some early proboscideans had both upper and lower tusks, and certain gomphotheres possessed flattened lower tusks,
earning them the nickname “shovel-tuskers”.
However, typical mastodons had only upper tusks.
Compared to modern elephants (genera
Elephas and Loxodonta), mastodons were generally shorter
and more heavily built.
Their teeth were very different from those of elephants and mammoths: instead of flat grinding plates,
mastodons had cusped molars suited for browsing on leaves, twigs, and shrubs.
The name “mastodon” means “nipple tooth,” referring to these distinctive cusps.
They likely had hair, especially in colder climates, though the extent and coloration of their coat are uncertain.
Mastodons survived until the end of the Pleistocene, becoming extinct roughly 11,000–10,000 years ago.
They coexisted with early Native American populations in North America.
Most scientists believe their extinction was caused by a combination of rapid climate change at the end of the Ice Age
and human hunting pressure.
Products and associated philatelic items
No official philatelic products were issued in connection with this stamp issue.
The United States Postal Service did not produce an official First Day Cover (FDC)
or a pictorial First-Day-of-Issue postmark.
All first day covers and maxi cards illustrated below are privately produced items.
| FDC |
Maxi Card |
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| Stamps Sheet |
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References
