Mermaids, Mummies, and Mastodons: The Emergence of the American Museum

by William T. Alderson

A "Feejee mermaid," the skeletal remains of a "wooly mammoth," and a "cabinet of learned turkies which will dance to music," were attractions at Baltimore's Peale Museum in the early 1800s. As the nation's first museum directors, Charles Wilson Peale, and his sons Rembrandt and Rubens, laid the foundation of the modern American museum.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0931201152
• ISBN13: 9780931201158
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: American Association of Museums
• Length: 104 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 11.2" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher