What did Rembrandt Peale demonstrate in the museum galleries?
Correct Answer: Peale demonstrated gas light! (Sure, he probably embalmed turkeys too, but we don’t have any documentation for that!)
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In addition to being an artist, natural scientist, and museum director, Rembrandt Peale shared his family’s talent for innovation and entrepreneurship. He demonstrated gas light in his galleries, using the new energy technology of the day as an attraction to sell evening tickets to visit the museum.
It has been said that people would stand on Holliday Street in front of the Peale Museum marveling at the brightness of the light coming from its windows – an unprecedented sight in a world of candles and oil lamps. By 1817, Peale had started the Baltimore Gas Company and secured the contract to supply gas street lights throughout Baltimore – the first city in America, and among the first in the world, to be lit by gas – hence its nickname, “Light City.” Peale manufactured the gas in a shed at the back of the museum, and it was supplied to the city in wooden pipes made from hollowed out logs. Two hundred years later, the business Rembrandt Peale founded at his Museum is one of the oldest in the world: Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), an Exelon Company.