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“Nature is silent only to those who know not how to interrogate her—to the man of inquisitive mind she offers ample instruction.”
APS Librarian Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) was a renaissance man of the 18th century. While most remembered for his prolific career as a portrait painter of the leading figures of the American Revolution, Peale was also a military officer, scientist, inventor, and naturalist. He founded some of the nation’s earliest cultural institutions, including the first museum in the country, housed at the APS.
