Son of painter Charles Willson Peale and Elizabeth de Peyster.
Married:
(1) Eliza Greatrake (18 Feb 1792, ENG), daughter of Laurence and Eliza Greatrake, on 24 Apr 1815 at St Michaels, Germantown, Philadelphia, PA., when he was 19 years old, without his father's consent. The marriage was annulled on 22 Mar 1820, she had been committed to the Pennsylvania Hospital as a "lunatic". He was apparently forewarned by an acquaintance to him and knowledgeable of the Greatrake family after the marriage that she had been confirmed invalid.
(2) Caroline Girard Haslam in 1839, a widow, and the niece of the wealthy Stephen Girard; it lasted to his death.
Child: Eliza Greatrake
Anna E. Peale (1815-1905) artist
Benjamin Franklin Peale (born Aldrovand Peale, in the family quarters of his father's museum. He was given the name Aldrovand, after the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi. His father was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in February 1796, brought his young son to a meeting, and asked the members to select another name for the child. They decided on Benjamin Franklin Peale, naming the boy after the Society's founder, Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin Peale's education was informal, he did spend some time at a local school in nearby Bucks County, as well as at Germantown Academy and the University of Pennsylvania. He made toys as a boy, and surveyed his father's farm near Germantown. Although he lacked the artistic talent of some of his brothers, such as Titian Peale, he proved mechanically inclined. He became adept in machine making.
At age 17, Peale began to work for the Delaware cotton factory of William Young, on the Brandywine River, learning the making of machines. He was an apt student, becoming adept as a turner, founder, and draftsman. He was tolerated in his desire for a mechanical career by his father, who considered it a foolish whim. Within a year, one of the Hodgson brothers, who ran a nearby machine shop, described Peale as highly capable with tools. At age 19 Peale returned to Germantown, where, having designed and supervised the installation of the machinery for a cotton factory there, he was put in charge, and continued to manage the factory for several years. He then moved to nearby Philadelphia, and worked for the firm of John & Coleman Sellers, which made machinery for card sticking.
In 1820, Peale left factory management to assist his aging father in running the museum, and remained there for over a decade. When Charles Willson Peale died in 1827, Franklin became the manager of the museum, and like his siblings, inherited stock in it. He not only maintained the exhibits, but added to them, contributing a "curious speaking toy" as well as the model for an early locomotive, which was used to draw two small cars in the museum, with seating for four people. At the time, the museum was located in the Old State House (today, Independence Hall), and Peale worked out a system for using the State House bell to inform fire companies of the location of a blaze.
Peale was one of the founders of The Franklin Institute in 1824, one of several mechanics' institutes that came into being in the early 1820s to provide working men with technical education. It quickly became important and influential, organizing an exhibition of American manufactured goods that October, one of at least 26 such shows that it put on in the first 34 years of its existence. Peale taught natural history, mechanics (illustrating his lectures with models and drawings), and chemistry, livening the talks with experiments. He was for many years actively involved with The Franklin Institute, writing articles for its Journal and serving on key committees.
January 1825, Philadelphia - Mr. Lehman presented the remonstrance of Eliza Greatrake, of the State of Delaware, accompanied with a document, against the passage of the bill, for the relief of Benjamin Peale. She had been previously committed to an asylum at the time by the Peale's. Her residence in 1820 is at Christiana Hundred, New Castle, Delaware, appears to be with her family.
Employee and Officer of the Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. He was the 3rd Chief Coiner of the Mint. Although Peale introduced many innovations to the Mint of the United States.
In 1833, Peale was hired by the Mint, and was sent for two years to Europe (France, England, Germany) to study and report back on coining techniques. The Mint wanted all coins to be identical to others of the same denomination, the use of the screw press was an impediment to this, as the force used to impress the design on the coins was not uniform. Additionally, the coinage dies were made by hand, leading to differences between coins of the same year struck from different dies. He returned with plans for many improvements to include metals refining, establishing a museum of coins and coining, as the Paris facility had, and designed the first steam-powered coinage press in the United States (borrowing the steam machinery design from English mints and the toggle joint technology from French ones), and was installed in 1836. Peale was made Melter and Refiner of the Philadelphia Mint that year.
The first pieces produced by steam power at the Philadelphia Mint, commemorative medals, were struck on March 23, 1836. The first steam press there then began minting cents, with silver and gold coinage first struck there by steam towards the end of the year. Built by the Philadelphia firm of Merrick, Agnew, and Taylor to Peale's design, the press was able to coin 100 pieces per minute.
2nd Melter and Refiner of the United States Mint at Philadelphia (January 5, 1836 – March 27, 1839)
Peale was appointed as Chief Coiner by President Martin Van Buren on March 27, 1839, during congressional recess. On January 23, 1840, after the Senate reconvened, the Senate gave its approval on February 17, 1840.
3rd Chief Coiner of the United States Mint at Philadelphia (March 27, 1839 – December 2, 1854).
Upon his the retirement, continued in his work without pay, and his predecessor Adam Eckfeldt, allowed Peale to run a medal business using Mint property.
Peale sometimes worked on medals for the government. During the Mexican–American War, Congress voted a gold medal to Major General Zachary Taylor for his victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Peale engraved the design from a portrait by William Carl Brown and a model by John T. Battin. After Taylor became president, Peale designed his Indian Peace Medal; Peale also engraved Indian Peace Medals for presidents John Tyler and James Polk, working from designs or models by other men. In 1846, Peale designed and engraved the Coast Survey Medal (also called the George M. Bache medal). Peale believed that all national commemorative medals, those authorized by Congress, should have their dies lodged at the Philadelphia Mint, and be struck there, and with Patterson's support urged the issuance of medals for presidents for whom no Indian Peace Medal had been designed, such as John Adams and William Henry Harrison. These were not done in Peale's time. These works, like Peale's Indian Peace Medals, form part of the Mint's Presidential series, which continues to the present day.
Beginning in 1849, there were calls for a silver three-cent piece, and pattern coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint. Longacre's design featured a shield within a six-pointed star on one side. Peale offered a competing design, showing a Liberty cap, very similar to one Gobrecht had made in 1836 when a gold dollar had been proposed. Patterson preferred Peale's design, but reluctantly endorsed Longacre's, since it was in lower relief and could be struck more easily, and Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin approved the Engraver's work. The three-cent piece went into circulation in 1851.
In 1850, with the Mint faced with a vast increase in gold deposits due to the California Gold Rush, Peale suggested that the Mint hire women to supplement the staff assigned to weigh and adjust gold planchets, or coin blanks, describing the work as "being entirely suited to their capacity". The Mint did hire 40 women, who were (as of 1860) paid $1.10 per ten-hour day, a sum considered generous. The Mint's hiring of women was the first time the American government had employed women to fill specific jobs at regular wages.
In 1851, Peale designed a new steam engine for the Philadelphia Mint, using a "steeple" design without exterior pipes. Although designed to generate 100 horsepower, wear soon reduced its capacity. American journals of engineering mentioned Peale's latest work without comment; British journals pointed out the defects and suggested that time had passed Peale by.
Despite a number of accusations against him about operating his personal business on the Mint property, his response to those was, "I boldly claim to have done for the Mint and my country, much that will entitle me gratitude". In August 1854, new Mint Director, James Ross Snowden; he and the new Treasury Secretary, James Guthrie, decided to forbid private enterprises on the Mint's property. Peale left the Mint on December 2, 1854, never again to return.
In 1864, he returned to the private sector as president of the Hazelton Coal and Rail Road Company, in which he had long been involved, remaining in that position through 1867. Civic organizations of which he was president included the Musical Fund Society of Pennsylvania and the Institution for Instruction to the Blind. He had been elected a manager of the latter organization in 1839, served on many important committees, and was elected its president in 1863, still holding the office at his death in 1870. A member of the American Philosophical Society since 1833, he served as one of its curators from 1838 to 1845 and from 1847 until 1870. A longtime member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, which his father had helped to found, he served as one of its directors through much of his retirement. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1865.
In his later years, Peale spent some of his autumns at the Delaware Water Gap north of Philadelphia, searching for Stone Age artifacts and amassing a major collection. Peale cataloged his finds and added narrative descriptions, bequeathing the collection to the American Philosophical Society. An adept archer, he helped found the United Bowmen club, members of whom carried his casket to his grave, at his instructions. He was also, at his death, president of the Skater's Club. He was a lifelong skater, and developed a method for extracting a skater who broke through the ice that saved many lives.
Peale was among those consulted in 1870 by Treasury Secretary George Boutwell in preparing the legislation to reform the Mint that became the Coinage Act of 1873. Peale advocated for the office of the Mint Director to be moved from Philadelphia to Washington; this was enacted. He supported the abolition of the gold dollar and the three-dollar piece, but these coins were not ended by Congress until 1890. He denigrated recent coin issues (many designed by Longacre, who had died in 1869), saying that their designs have, "hitherto been lamentably, if not disgracefully deficient".
Even though he had one daughter from his first marriage, he enjoyed the company of children, making toys by his own hand for them. Peale was in declining health in his final months, but was still able to continue his activities, and only a short illness preceded his death at his home at 1131 Girard Street in Philadelphia, on May 5, 1870. His final words were, "If this is death, it is as I wished, perfect peace, perfect comfort, perfect joy."
After his dismissal, Peale petitioned Congress for $30,000 as payment for improvements and inventions he had made for the government (likely for unpaid consulting work after his departure). The Senate twice, in 1858 and 1860, passed legislation to pay Peale $10,000, but the House of Representatives declined to vote on it. In 1870, it was introduced in the Senate again, but did not pass. Legislation to compensate Peale in the amount of $10,000 was enacted on March 3, 1873, after his death—the act was, according to its title, in relief of Anna E. Peale, Franklin Peale's daughter. The following month, Caroline Peale, Franklin's widow, gave the Mint a marble bust of her late husband, "to be set upon a pedestal, in some position, where it may be open to the inspection of visitors and preserve his memory to future generations." In 1966, one notes that the whereabout of the bust is uncertain.
Source material: Wikipedia
Died at the residence: 1131 Girard Street in Philadelphia., where his wife also died.
Census records can be very inaccurate at times, this is a good example (I trust the 1850 Census):
1850 Census (Philadelphia, Middle Ward, Philadelphia, PA)
Franklin Peale 56 Pennsylvania
Caroline Peale 48 Pennsylvania
Anna Peale 34 Pennsylvania
Ellen Mcgluisay 25 Ireland *
Elizabeth Roserden 26 Ireland
1860 Census (9th Ward, Philadelphia City, Philadelphia, PA)
Franklin Peale 63 Pennsylvania
Caroline Peale 60 Pennsylvania
Emma Peale 40 Pennsylvania
Ellen Mc Glensia 35 Ireland *
Mary Mc Glensia 25 Ireland
1870 Census (Ward 9, Philadelphia, PA)
Caroline Peale 60 Pennsylvania
Anna Peale 35 Pennsylvania
Helen Clark 50 Pennsylvania
Annie Duffy 30 Ireland
Lizzie Burnside 20 Ireland
Married:
(1) Eliza Greatrake (18 Feb 1792, ENG), daughter of Laurence and Eliza Greatrake, on 24 Apr 1815 at St Michaels, Germantown, Philadelphia, PA., when he was 19 years old, without his father's consent. The marriage was annulled on 22 Mar 1820, she had been committed to the Pennsylvania Hospital as a "lunatic". He was apparently forewarned by an acquaintance to him and knowledgeable of the Greatrake family after the marriage that she had been confirmed invalid.
(2) Caroline Girard Haslam in 1839, a widow, and the niece of the wealthy Stephen Girard; it lasted to his death.
Child: Eliza Greatrake
Anna E. Peale (1815-1905) artist
Benjamin Franklin Peale (born Aldrovand Peale, in the family quarters of his father's museum. He was given the name Aldrovand, after the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi. His father was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in February 1796, brought his young son to a meeting, and asked the members to select another name for the child. They decided on Benjamin Franklin Peale, naming the boy after the Society's founder, Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin Peale's education was informal, he did spend some time at a local school in nearby Bucks County, as well as at Germantown Academy and the University of Pennsylvania. He made toys as a boy, and surveyed his father's farm near Germantown. Although he lacked the artistic talent of some of his brothers, such as Titian Peale, he proved mechanically inclined. He became adept in machine making.
At age 17, Peale began to work for the Delaware cotton factory of William Young, on the Brandywine River, learning the making of machines. He was an apt student, becoming adept as a turner, founder, and draftsman. He was tolerated in his desire for a mechanical career by his father, who considered it a foolish whim. Within a year, one of the Hodgson brothers, who ran a nearby machine shop, described Peale as highly capable with tools. At age 19 Peale returned to Germantown, where, having designed and supervised the installation of the machinery for a cotton factory there, he was put in charge, and continued to manage the factory for several years. He then moved to nearby Philadelphia, and worked for the firm of John & Coleman Sellers, which made machinery for card sticking.
In 1820, Peale left factory management to assist his aging father in running the museum, and remained there for over a decade. When Charles Willson Peale died in 1827, Franklin became the manager of the museum, and like his siblings, inherited stock in it. He not only maintained the exhibits, but added to them, contributing a "curious speaking toy" as well as the model for an early locomotive, which was used to draw two small cars in the museum, with seating for four people. At the time, the museum was located in the Old State House (today, Independence Hall), and Peale worked out a system for using the State House bell to inform fire companies of the location of a blaze.
Peale was one of the founders of The Franklin Institute in 1824, one of several mechanics' institutes that came into being in the early 1820s to provide working men with technical education. It quickly became important and influential, organizing an exhibition of American manufactured goods that October, one of at least 26 such shows that it put on in the first 34 years of its existence. Peale taught natural history, mechanics (illustrating his lectures with models and drawings), and chemistry, livening the talks with experiments. He was for many years actively involved with The Franklin Institute, writing articles for its Journal and serving on key committees.
January 1825, Philadelphia - Mr. Lehman presented the remonstrance of Eliza Greatrake, of the State of Delaware, accompanied with a document, against the passage of the bill, for the relief of Benjamin Peale. She had been previously committed to an asylum at the time by the Peale's. Her residence in 1820 is at Christiana Hundred, New Castle, Delaware, appears to be with her family.
Employee and Officer of the Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. He was the 3rd Chief Coiner of the Mint. Although Peale introduced many innovations to the Mint of the United States.
In 1833, Peale was hired by the Mint, and was sent for two years to Europe (France, England, Germany) to study and report back on coining techniques. The Mint wanted all coins to be identical to others of the same denomination, the use of the screw press was an impediment to this, as the force used to impress the design on the coins was not uniform. Additionally, the coinage dies were made by hand, leading to differences between coins of the same year struck from different dies. He returned with plans for many improvements to include metals refining, establishing a museum of coins and coining, as the Paris facility had, and designed the first steam-powered coinage press in the United States (borrowing the steam machinery design from English mints and the toggle joint technology from French ones), and was installed in 1836. Peale was made Melter and Refiner of the Philadelphia Mint that year.
The first pieces produced by steam power at the Philadelphia Mint, commemorative medals, were struck on March 23, 1836. The first steam press there then began minting cents, with silver and gold coinage first struck there by steam towards the end of the year. Built by the Philadelphia firm of Merrick, Agnew, and Taylor to Peale's design, the press was able to coin 100 pieces per minute.
2nd Melter and Refiner of the United States Mint at Philadelphia (January 5, 1836 – March 27, 1839)
Peale was appointed as Chief Coiner by President Martin Van Buren on March 27, 1839, during congressional recess. On January 23, 1840, after the Senate reconvened, the Senate gave its approval on February 17, 1840.
3rd Chief Coiner of the United States Mint at Philadelphia (March 27, 1839 – December 2, 1854).
Upon his the retirement, continued in his work without pay, and his predecessor Adam Eckfeldt, allowed Peale to run a medal business using Mint property.
Peale sometimes worked on medals for the government. During the Mexican–American War, Congress voted a gold medal to Major General Zachary Taylor for his victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Peale engraved the design from a portrait by William Carl Brown and a model by John T. Battin. After Taylor became president, Peale designed his Indian Peace Medal; Peale also engraved Indian Peace Medals for presidents John Tyler and James Polk, working from designs or models by other men. In 1846, Peale designed and engraved the Coast Survey Medal (also called the George M. Bache medal). Peale believed that all national commemorative medals, those authorized by Congress, should have their dies lodged at the Philadelphia Mint, and be struck there, and with Patterson's support urged the issuance of medals for presidents for whom no Indian Peace Medal had been designed, such as John Adams and William Henry Harrison. These were not done in Peale's time. These works, like Peale's Indian Peace Medals, form part of the Mint's Presidential series, which continues to the present day.
Beginning in 1849, there were calls for a silver three-cent piece, and pattern coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint. Longacre's design featured a shield within a six-pointed star on one side. Peale offered a competing design, showing a Liberty cap, very similar to one Gobrecht had made in 1836 when a gold dollar had been proposed. Patterson preferred Peale's design, but reluctantly endorsed Longacre's, since it was in lower relief and could be struck more easily, and Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin approved the Engraver's work. The three-cent piece went into circulation in 1851.
In 1850, with the Mint faced with a vast increase in gold deposits due to the California Gold Rush, Peale suggested that the Mint hire women to supplement the staff assigned to weigh and adjust gold planchets, or coin blanks, describing the work as "being entirely suited to their capacity". The Mint did hire 40 women, who were (as of 1860) paid $1.10 per ten-hour day, a sum considered generous. The Mint's hiring of women was the first time the American government had employed women to fill specific jobs at regular wages.
In 1851, Peale designed a new steam engine for the Philadelphia Mint, using a "steeple" design without exterior pipes. Although designed to generate 100 horsepower, wear soon reduced its capacity. American journals of engineering mentioned Peale's latest work without comment; British journals pointed out the defects and suggested that time had passed Peale by.
Despite a number of accusations against him about operating his personal business on the Mint property, his response to those was, "I boldly claim to have done for the Mint and my country, much that will entitle me gratitude". In August 1854, new Mint Director, James Ross Snowden; he and the new Treasury Secretary, James Guthrie, decided to forbid private enterprises on the Mint's property. Peale left the Mint on December 2, 1854, never again to return.
In 1864, he returned to the private sector as president of the Hazelton Coal and Rail Road Company, in which he had long been involved, remaining in that position through 1867. Civic organizations of which he was president included the Musical Fund Society of Pennsylvania and the Institution for Instruction to the Blind. He had been elected a manager of the latter organization in 1839, served on many important committees, and was elected its president in 1863, still holding the office at his death in 1870. A member of the American Philosophical Society since 1833, he served as one of its curators from 1838 to 1845 and from 1847 until 1870. A longtime member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, which his father had helped to found, he served as one of its directors through much of his retirement. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1865.
In his later years, Peale spent some of his autumns at the Delaware Water Gap north of Philadelphia, searching for Stone Age artifacts and amassing a major collection. Peale cataloged his finds and added narrative descriptions, bequeathing the collection to the American Philosophical Society. An adept archer, he helped found the United Bowmen club, members of whom carried his casket to his grave, at his instructions. He was also, at his death, president of the Skater's Club. He was a lifelong skater, and developed a method for extracting a skater who broke through the ice that saved many lives.
Peale was among those consulted in 1870 by Treasury Secretary George Boutwell in preparing the legislation to reform the Mint that became the Coinage Act of 1873. Peale advocated for the office of the Mint Director to be moved from Philadelphia to Washington; this was enacted. He supported the abolition of the gold dollar and the three-dollar piece, but these coins were not ended by Congress until 1890. He denigrated recent coin issues (many designed by Longacre, who had died in 1869), saying that their designs have, "hitherto been lamentably, if not disgracefully deficient".
Even though he had one daughter from his first marriage, he enjoyed the company of children, making toys by his own hand for them. Peale was in declining health in his final months, but was still able to continue his activities, and only a short illness preceded his death at his home at 1131 Girard Street in Philadelphia, on May 5, 1870. His final words were, "If this is death, it is as I wished, perfect peace, perfect comfort, perfect joy."
After his dismissal, Peale petitioned Congress for $30,000 as payment for improvements and inventions he had made for the government (likely for unpaid consulting work after his departure). The Senate twice, in 1858 and 1860, passed legislation to pay Peale $10,000, but the House of Representatives declined to vote on it. In 1870, it was introduced in the Senate again, but did not pass. Legislation to compensate Peale in the amount of $10,000 was enacted on March 3, 1873, after his death—the act was, according to its title, in relief of Anna E. Peale, Franklin Peale's daughter. The following month, Caroline Peale, Franklin's widow, gave the Mint a marble bust of her late husband, "to be set upon a pedestal, in some position, where it may be open to the inspection of visitors and preserve his memory to future generations." In 1966, one notes that the whereabout of the bust is uncertain.
Source material: Wikipedia
Died at the residence: 1131 Girard Street in Philadelphia., where his wife also died.
Census records can be very inaccurate at times, this is a good example (I trust the 1850 Census):
1850 Census (Philadelphia, Middle Ward, Philadelphia, PA)
Franklin Peale 56 Pennsylvania
Caroline Peale 48 Pennsylvania
Anna Peale 34 Pennsylvania
Ellen Mcgluisay 25 Ireland *
Elizabeth Roserden 26 Ireland
1860 Census (9th Ward, Philadelphia City, Philadelphia, PA)
Franklin Peale 63 Pennsylvania
Caroline Peale 60 Pennsylvania
Emma Peale 40 Pennsylvania
Ellen Mc Glensia 35 Ireland *
Mary Mc Glensia 25 Ireland
1870 Census (Ward 9, Philadelphia, PA)
Caroline Peale 60 Pennsylvania
Anna Peale 35 Pennsylvania
Helen Clark 50 Pennsylvania
Annie Duffy 30 Ireland
Lizzie Burnside 20 Ireland
Son of painter Charles Willson Peale and Elizabeth de Peyster.
Married:
(1) Eliza Greatrake (18 Feb 1792, ENG), daughter of Laurence and Eliza Greatrake, on 24 Apr 1815 at St Michaels, Germantown, Philadelphia, PA., when he was 19 years old, without his father's consent. The marriage was annulled on 22 Mar 1820, she had been committed to the Pennsylvania Hospital as a "lunatic". He was apparently forewarned by an acquaintance to him and knowledgeable of the Greatrake family after the marriage that she had been confirmed invalid.
(2) Caroline Girard Haslam in 1839, a widow, and the niece of the wealthy Stephen Girard; it lasted to his death.
Child: Eliza Greatrake
Anna E. Peale (1815-1905) artist
Benjamin Franklin Peale (born Aldrovand Peale, in the family quarters of his father's museum. He was given the name Aldrovand, after the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi. His father was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in February 1796, brought his young son to a meeting, and asked the members to select another name for the child. They decided on Benjamin Franklin Peale, naming the boy after the Society's founder, Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin Peale's education was informal, he did spend some time at a local school in nearby Bucks County, as well as at Germantown Academy and the University of Pennsylvania. He made toys as a boy, and surveyed his father's farm near Germantown. Although he lacked the artistic talent of some of his brothers, such as Titian Peale, he proved mechanically inclined. He became adept in machine making.
At age 17, Peale began to work for the Delaware cotton factory of William Young, on the Brandywine River, learning the making of machines. He was an apt student, becoming adept as a turner, founder, and draftsman. He was tolerated in his desire for a mechanical career by his father, who considered it a foolish whim. Within a year, one of the Hodgson brothers, who ran a nearby machine shop, described Peale as highly capable with tools. At age 19 Peale returned to Germantown, where, having designed and supervised the installation of the machinery for a cotton factory there, he was put in charge, and continued to manage the factory for several years. He then moved to nearby Philadelphia, and worked for the firm of John & Coleman Sellers, which made machinery for card sticking.
In 1820, Peale left factory management to assist his aging father in running the museum, and remained there for over a decade. When Charles Willson Peale died in 1827, Franklin became the manager of the museum, and like his siblings, inherited stock in it. He not only maintained the exhibits, but added to them, contributing a "curious speaking toy" as well as the model for an early locomotive, which was used to draw two small cars in the museum, with seating for four people. At the time, the museum was located in the Old State House (today, Independence Hall), and Peale worked out a system for using the State House bell to inform fire companies of the location of a blaze.
Peale was one of the founders of The Franklin Institute in 1824, one of several mechanics' institutes that came into being in the early 1820s to provide working men with technical education. It quickly became important and influential, organizing an exhibition of American manufactured goods that October, one of at least 26 such shows that it put on in the first 34 years of its existence. Peale taught natural history, mechanics (illustrating his lectures with models and drawings), and chemistry, livening the talks with experiments. He was for many years actively involved with The Franklin Institute, writing articles for its Journal and serving on key committees.
January 1825, Philadelphia - Mr. Lehman presented the remonstrance of Eliza Greatrake, of the State of Delaware, accompanied with a document, against the passage of the bill, for the relief of Benjamin Peale. She had been previously committed to an asylum at the time by the Peale's. Her residence in 1820 is at Christiana Hundred, New Castle, Delaware, appears to be with her family.
Employee and Officer of the Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. He was the 3rd Chief Coiner of the Mint. Although Peale introduced many innovations to the Mint of the United States.
In 1833, Peale was hired by the Mint, and was sent for two years to Europe (France, England, Germany) to study and report back on coining techniques. The Mint wanted all coins to be identical to others of the same denomination, the use of the screw press was an impediment to this, as the force used to impress the design on the coins was not uniform. Additionally, the coinage dies were made by hand, leading to differences between coins of the same year struck from different dies. He returned with plans for many improvements to include metals refining, establishing a museum of coins and coining, as the Paris facility had, and designed the first steam-powered coinage press in the United States (borrowing the steam machinery design from English mints and the toggle joint technology from French ones), and was installed in 1836. Peale was made Melter and Refiner of the Philadelphia Mint that year.
The first pieces produced by steam power at the Philadelphia Mint, commemorative medals, were struck on March 23, 1836. The first steam press there then began minting cents, with silver and gold coinage first struck there by steam towards the end of the year. Built by the Philadelphia firm of Merrick, Agnew, and Taylor to Peale's design, the press was able to coin 100 pieces per minute.
2nd Melter and Refiner of the United States Mint at Philadelphia (January 5, 1836 – March 27, 1839)
Peale was appointed as Chief Coiner by President Martin Van Buren on March 27, 1839, during congressional recess. On January 23, 1840, after the Senate reconvened, the Senate gave its approval on February 17, 1840.
3rd Chief Coiner of the United States Mint at Philadelphia (March 27, 1839 – December 2, 1854).
Upon his the retirement, continued in his work without pay, and his predecessor Adam Eckfeldt, allowed Peale to run a medal business using Mint property.
Peale sometimes worked on medals for the government. During the Mexican–American War, Congress voted a gold medal to Major General Zachary Taylor for his victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Peale engraved the design from a portrait by William Carl Brown and a model by John T. Battin. After Taylor became president, Peale designed his Indian Peace Medal; Peale also engraved Indian Peace Medals for presidents John Tyler and James Polk, working from designs or models by other men. In 1846, Peale designed and engraved the Coast Survey Medal (also called the George M. Bache medal). Peale believed that all national commemorative medals, those authorized by Congress, should have their dies lodged at the Philadelphia Mint, and be struck there, and with Patterson's support urged the issuance of medals for presidents for whom no Indian Peace Medal had been designed, such as John Adams and William Henry Harrison. These were not done in Peale's time. These works, like Peale's Indian Peace Medals, form part of the Mint's Presidential series, which continues to the present day.
Beginning in 1849, there were calls for a silver three-cent piece, and pattern coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint. Longacre's design featured a shield within a six-pointed star on one side. Peale offered a competing design, showing a Liberty cap, very similar to one Gobrecht had made in 1836 when a gold dollar had been proposed. Patterson preferred Peale's design, but reluctantly endorsed Longacre's, since it was in lower relief and could be struck more easily, and Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin approved the Engraver's work. The three-cent piece went into circulation in 1851.
In 1850, with the Mint faced with a vast increase in gold deposits due to the California Gold Rush, Peale suggested that the Mint hire women to supplement the staff assigned to weigh and adjust gold planchets, or coin blanks, describing the work as "being entirely suited to their capacity". The Mint did hire 40 women, who were (as of 1860) paid $1.10 per ten-hour day, a sum considered generous. The Mint's hiring of women was the first time the American government had employed women to fill specific jobs at regular wages.
In 1851, Peale designed a new steam engine for the Philadelphia Mint, using a "steeple" design without exterior pipes. Although designed to generate 100 horsepower, wear soon reduced its capacity. American journals of engineering mentioned Peale's latest work without comment; British journals pointed out the defects and suggested that time had passed Peale by.
Despite a number of accusations against him about operating his personal business on the Mint property, his response to those was, "I boldly claim to have done for the Mint and my country, much that will entitle me gratitude". In August 1854, new Mint Director, James Ross Snowden; he and the new Treasury Secretary, James Guthrie, decided to forbid private enterprises on the Mint's property. Peale left the Mint on December 2, 1854, never again to return.
In 1864, he returned to the private sector as president of the Hazelton Coal and Rail Road Company, in which he had long been involved, remaining in that position through 1867. Civic organizations of which he was president included the Musical Fund Society of Pennsylvania and the Institution for Instruction to the Blind. He had been elected a manager of the latter organization in 1839, served on many important committees, and was elected its president in 1863, still holding the office at his death in 1870. A member of the American Philosophical Society since 1833, he served as one of its curators from 1838 to 1845 and from 1847 until 1870. A longtime member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, which his father had helped to found, he served as one of its directors through much of his retirement. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1865.
In his later years, Peale spent some of his autumns at the Delaware Water Gap north of Philadelphia, searching for Stone Age artifacts and amassing a major collection. Peale cataloged his finds and added narrative descriptions, bequeathing the collection to the American Philosophical Society. An adept archer, he helped found the United Bowmen club, members of whom carried his casket to his grave, at his instructions. He was also, at his death, president of the Skater's Club. He was a lifelong skater, and developed a method for extracting a skater who broke through the ice that saved many lives.
Peale was among those consulted in 1870 by Treasury Secretary George Boutwell in preparing the legislation to reform the Mint that became the Coinage Act of 1873. Peale advocated for the office of the Mint Director to be moved from Philadelphia to Washington; this was enacted. He supported the abolition of the gold dollar and the three-dollar piece, but these coins were not ended by Congress until 1890. He denigrated recent coin issues (many designed by Longacre, who had died in 1869), saying that their designs have, "hitherto been lamentably, if not disgracefully deficient".
Even though he had one daughter from his first marriage, he enjoyed the company of children, making toys by his own hand for them. Peale was in declining health in his final months, but was still able to continue his activities, and only a short illness preceded his death at his home at 1131 Girard Street in Philadelphia, on May 5, 1870. His final words were, "If this is death, it is as I wished, perfect peace, perfect comfort, perfect joy."
After his dismissal, Peale petitioned Congress for $30,000 as payment for improvements and inventions he had made for the government (likely for unpaid consulting work after his departure). The Senate twice, in 1858 and 1860, passed legislation to pay Peale $10,000, but the House of Representatives declined to vote on it. In 1870, it was introduced in the Senate again, but did not pass. Legislation to compensate Peale in the amount of $10,000 was enacted on March 3, 1873, after his death—the act was, according to its title, in relief of Anna E. Peale, Franklin Peale's daughter. The following month, Caroline Peale, Franklin's widow, gave the Mint a marble bust of her late husband, "to be set upon a pedestal, in some position, where it may be open to the inspection of visitors and preserve his memory to future generations." In 1966, one notes that the whereabout of the bust is uncertain.
Source material: Wikipedia
Died at the residence: 1131 Girard Street in Philadelphia., where his wife also died.
Census records can be very inaccurate at times, this is a good example (I trust the 1850 Census):
1850 Census (Philadelphia, Middle Ward, Philadelphia, PA)
Franklin Peale 56 Pennsylvania
Caroline Peale 48 Pennsylvania
Anna Peale 34 Pennsylvania
Ellen Mcgluisay 25 Ireland *
Elizabeth Roserden 26 Ireland
1860 Census (9th Ward, Philadelphia City, Philadelphia, PA)
Franklin Peale 63 Pennsylvania
Caroline Peale 60 Pennsylvania
Emma Peale 40 Pennsylvania
Ellen Mc Glensia 35 Ireland *
Mary Mc Glensia 25 Ireland
1870 Census (Ward 9, Philadelphia, PA)
Caroline Peale 60 Pennsylvania
Anna Peale 35 Pennsylvania
Helen Clark 50 Pennsylvania
Annie Duffy 30 Ireland
Lizzie Burnside 20 Ireland
Married:
(1) Eliza Greatrake (18 Feb 1792, ENG), daughter of Laurence and Eliza Greatrake, on 24 Apr 1815 at St Michaels, Germantown, Philadelphia, PA., when he was 19 years old, without his father's consent. The marriage was annulled on 22 Mar 1820, she had been committed to the Pennsylvania Hospital as a "lunatic". He was apparently forewarned by an acquaintance to him and knowledgeable of the Greatrake family after the marriage that she had been confirmed invalid.
(2) Caroline Girard Haslam in 1839, a widow, and the niece of the wealthy Stephen Girard; it lasted to his death.
Child: Eliza Greatrake
Anna E. Peale (1815-1905) artist
Benjamin Franklin Peale (born Aldrovand Peale, in the family quarters of his father's museum. He was given the name Aldrovand, after the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi. His father was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in February 1796, brought his young son to a meeting, and asked the members to select another name for the child. They decided on Benjamin Franklin Peale, naming the boy after the Society's founder, Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin Peale's education was informal, he did spend some time at a local school in nearby Bucks County, as well as at Germantown Academy and the University of Pennsylvania. He made toys as a boy, and surveyed his father's farm near Germantown. Although he lacked the artistic talent of some of his brothers, such as Titian Peale, he proved mechanically inclined. He became adept in machine making.
At age 17, Peale began to work for the Delaware cotton factory of William Young, on the Brandywine River, learning the making of machines. He was an apt student, becoming adept as a turner, founder, and draftsman. He was tolerated in his desire for a mechanical career by his father, who considered it a foolish whim. Within a year, one of the Hodgson brothers, who ran a nearby machine shop, described Peale as highly capable with tools. At age 19 Peale returned to Germantown, where, having designed and supervised the installation of the machinery for a cotton factory there, he was put in charge, and continued to manage the factory for several years. He then moved to nearby Philadelphia, and worked for the firm of John & Coleman Sellers, which made machinery for card sticking.
In 1820, Peale left factory management to assist his aging father in running the museum, and remained there for over a decade. When Charles Willson Peale died in 1827, Franklin became the manager of the museum, and like his siblings, inherited stock in it. He not only maintained the exhibits, but added to them, contributing a "curious speaking toy" as well as the model for an early locomotive, which was used to draw two small cars in the museum, with seating for four people. At the time, the museum was located in the Old State House (today, Independence Hall), and Peale worked out a system for using the State House bell to inform fire companies of the location of a blaze.
Peale was one of the founders of The Franklin Institute in 1824, one of several mechanics' institutes that came into being in the early 1820s to provide working men with technical education. It quickly became important and influential, organizing an exhibition of American manufactured goods that October, one of at least 26 such shows that it put on in the first 34 years of its existence. Peale taught natural history, mechanics (illustrating his lectures with models and drawings), and chemistry, livening the talks with experiments. He was for many years actively involved with The Franklin Institute, writing articles for its Journal and serving on key committees.
January 1825, Philadelphia - Mr. Lehman presented the remonstrance of Eliza Greatrake, of the State of Delaware, accompanied with a document, against the passage of the bill, for the relief of Benjamin Peale. She had been previously committed to an asylum at the time by the Peale's. Her residence in 1820 is at Christiana Hundred, New Castle, Delaware, appears to be with her family.
Employee and Officer of the Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. He was the 3rd Chief Coiner of the Mint. Although Peale introduced many innovations to the Mint of the United States.
In 1833, Peale was hired by the Mint, and was sent for two years to Europe (France, England, Germany) to study and report back on coining techniques. The Mint wanted all coins to be identical to others of the same denomination, the use of the screw press was an impediment to this, as the force used to impress the design on the coins was not uniform. Additionally, the coinage dies were made by hand, leading to differences between coins of the same year struck from different dies. He returned with plans for many improvements to include metals refining, establishing a museum of coins and coining, as the Paris facility had, and designed the first steam-powered coinage press in the United States (borrowing the steam machinery design from English mints and the toggle joint technology from French ones), and was installed in 1836. Peale was made Melter and Refiner of the Philadelphia Mint that year.
The first pieces produced by steam power at the Philadelphia Mint, commemorative medals, were struck on March 23, 1836. The first steam press there then began minting cents, with silver and gold coinage first struck there by steam towards the end of the year. Built by the Philadelphia firm of Merrick, Agnew, and Taylor to Peale's design, the press was able to coin 100 pieces per minute.
2nd Melter and Refiner of the United States Mint at Philadelphia (January 5, 1836 – March 27, 1839)
Peale was appointed as Chief Coiner by President Martin Van Buren on March 27, 1839, during congressional recess. On January 23, 1840, after the Senate reconvened, the Senate gave its approval on February 17, 1840.
3rd Chief Coiner of the United States Mint at Philadelphia (March 27, 1839 – December 2, 1854).
Upon his the retirement, continued in his work without pay, and his predecessor Adam Eckfeldt, allowed Peale to run a medal business using Mint property.
Peale sometimes worked on medals for the government. During the Mexican–American War, Congress voted a gold medal to Major General Zachary Taylor for his victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Peale engraved the design from a portrait by William Carl Brown and a model by John T. Battin. After Taylor became president, Peale designed his Indian Peace Medal; Peale also engraved Indian Peace Medals for presidents John Tyler and James Polk, working from designs or models by other men. In 1846, Peale designed and engraved the Coast Survey Medal (also called the George M. Bache medal). Peale believed that all national commemorative medals, those authorized by Congress, should have their dies lodged at the Philadelphia Mint, and be struck there, and with Patterson's support urged the issuance of medals for presidents for whom no Indian Peace Medal had been designed, such as John Adams and William Henry Harrison. These were not done in Peale's time. These works, like Peale's Indian Peace Medals, form part of the Mint's Presidential series, which continues to the present day.
Beginning in 1849, there were calls for a silver three-cent piece, and pattern coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint. Longacre's design featured a shield within a six-pointed star on one side. Peale offered a competing design, showing a Liberty cap, very similar to one Gobrecht had made in 1836 when a gold dollar had been proposed. Patterson preferred Peale's design, but reluctantly endorsed Longacre's, since it was in lower relief and could be struck more easily, and Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin approved the Engraver's work. The three-cent piece went into circulation in 1851.
In 1850, with the Mint faced with a vast increase in gold deposits due to the California Gold Rush, Peale suggested that the Mint hire women to supplement the staff assigned to weigh and adjust gold planchets, or coin blanks, describing the work as "being entirely suited to their capacity". The Mint did hire 40 women, who were (as of 1860) paid $1.10 per ten-hour day, a sum considered generous. The Mint's hiring of women was the first time the American government had employed women to fill specific jobs at regular wages.
In 1851, Peale designed a new steam engine for the Philadelphia Mint, using a "steeple" design without exterior pipes. Although designed to generate 100 horsepower, wear soon reduced its capacity. American journals of engineering mentioned Peale's latest work without comment; British journals pointed out the defects and suggested that time had passed Peale by.
Despite a number of accusations against him about operating his personal business on the Mint property, his response to those was, "I boldly claim to have done for the Mint and my country, much that will entitle me gratitude". In August 1854, new Mint Director, James Ross Snowden; he and the new Treasury Secretary, James Guthrie, decided to forbid private enterprises on the Mint's property. Peale left the Mint on December 2, 1854, never again to return.
In 1864, he returned to the private sector as president of the Hazelton Coal and Rail Road Company, in which he had long been involved, remaining in that position through 1867. Civic organizations of which he was president included the Musical Fund Society of Pennsylvania and the Institution for Instruction to the Blind. He had been elected a manager of the latter organization in 1839, served on many important committees, and was elected its president in 1863, still holding the office at his death in 1870. A member of the American Philosophical Society since 1833, he served as one of its curators from 1838 to 1845 and from 1847 until 1870. A longtime member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, which his father had helped to found, he served as one of its directors through much of his retirement. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1865.
In his later years, Peale spent some of his autumns at the Delaware Water Gap north of Philadelphia, searching for Stone Age artifacts and amassing a major collection. Peale cataloged his finds and added narrative descriptions, bequeathing the collection to the American Philosophical Society. An adept archer, he helped found the United Bowmen club, members of whom carried his casket to his grave, at his instructions. He was also, at his death, president of the Skater's Club. He was a lifelong skater, and developed a method for extracting a skater who broke through the ice that saved many lives.
Peale was among those consulted in 1870 by Treasury Secretary George Boutwell in preparing the legislation to reform the Mint that became the Coinage Act of 1873. Peale advocated for the office of the Mint Director to be moved from Philadelphia to Washington; this was enacted. He supported the abolition of the gold dollar and the three-dollar piece, but these coins were not ended by Congress until 1890. He denigrated recent coin issues (many designed by Longacre, who had died in 1869), saying that their designs have, "hitherto been lamentably, if not disgracefully deficient".
Even though he had one daughter from his first marriage, he enjoyed the company of children, making toys by his own hand for them. Peale was in declining health in his final months, but was still able to continue his activities, and only a short illness preceded his death at his home at 1131 Girard Street in Philadelphia, on May 5, 1870. His final words were, "If this is death, it is as I wished, perfect peace, perfect comfort, perfect joy."
After his dismissal, Peale petitioned Congress for $30,000 as payment for improvements and inventions he had made for the government (likely for unpaid consulting work after his departure). The Senate twice, in 1858 and 1860, passed legislation to pay Peale $10,000, but the House of Representatives declined to vote on it. In 1870, it was introduced in the Senate again, but did not pass. Legislation to compensate Peale in the amount of $10,000 was enacted on March 3, 1873, after his death—the act was, according to its title, in relief of Anna E. Peale, Franklin Peale's daughter. The following month, Caroline Peale, Franklin's widow, gave the Mint a marble bust of her late husband, "to be set upon a pedestal, in some position, where it may be open to the inspection of visitors and preserve his memory to future generations." In 1966, one notes that the whereabout of the bust is uncertain.
Source material: Wikipedia
Died at the residence: 1131 Girard Street in Philadelphia., where his wife also died.
Census records can be very inaccurate at times, this is a good example (I trust the 1850 Census):
1850 Census (Philadelphia, Middle Ward, Philadelphia, PA)
Franklin Peale 56 Pennsylvania
Caroline Peale 48 Pennsylvania
Anna Peale 34 Pennsylvania
Ellen Mcgluisay 25 Ireland *
Elizabeth Roserden 26 Ireland
1860 Census (9th Ward, Philadelphia City, Philadelphia, PA)
Franklin Peale 63 Pennsylvania
Caroline Peale 60 Pennsylvania
Emma Peale 40 Pennsylvania
Ellen Mc Glensia 35 Ireland *
Mary Mc Glensia 25 Ireland
1870 Census (Ward 9, Philadelphia, PA)
Caroline Peale 60 Pennsylvania
Anna Peale 35 Pennsylvania
Helen Clark 50 Pennsylvania
Annie Duffy 30 Ireland
Lizzie Burnside 20 Ireland
Gravesite Details
Buried at the cemetery with his wife Caroline, daughter Anna, and brother Titian Peale
Family Members
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Records on Ancestry
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