We are studying Peale for the next two weeks. I was fascinated with him. He accomplished many things and led an intriguing life. Among the many things I discovered: He learned saddlemaking, painting, metalwork among other things. He was friends with many of the founding fathers and as a patriot bravely fought in the Revolutionary War. He had 17 children, 11 of whom lived (most of them he named after artists) and held the controversial position that a woman could be as creatively expressive as a man. He started the first natural science museums, a revolutionary idea for his time. He loved his family and his country. Here is how I developed our studies.I searched my library for resources and came across these (there are many more, including an autobiography on microfiche):

• The Ingenious Mr. Peale: Painter, Patriot and Man of Science by Janet Wilson
• This biography is short (120 pp. or so) but thorough. It gave me enough information to flesh out his life without getting bogged down in a lot of unnecessary information.
• Mermaids, Mummies and Mastodons: The Emergence of the American Museum published by the American Association of Museums Has an interesting timeline that documents the items procured for the different museums . Also contains sketches by his sons detailing the museums’ interiors.
• The Joke’s on George by Michael O. Tunnell This is a children’s book detailing an true and funny incident when George Washington came to visit Peale at his museum in Philadelphia. This book really got me started on studying him more in-depth.

I also found more info on Peale online.

• Art Encyclopedia has links to many, many of Peale’s works
• Virtual Museum of Art has a bio and links to lots of his art.
• “Your Garden Must be a Museum” article about Peale’s love of God’s creation and his care for it.
• Peale Family Papers on Microfiche
• CGFA online works by Peale, including some scientific works and self-portraits.

I discovered that one of my local museums also had some of his work. That was very exciting to me!

First I read through the biography of Peale and made notes on the following (according the the study outline in Dr. Rose’s Guide): Key People in Peale’s life, Key Events (in the form of a timeline), Key Institutions and Key Documents. I also kept a list of his character traits and insights as I went along.

From there I looked up key words in the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary and then looked up those words in the Bible to discover the Principles I need to discuss. After I had done all of this I assembled samples of his work and then I felt I had a good grasp on just who Charles Willson Peale was.

All of this information helped me formulate my weekly plans. We will incorporate Peale in every subject these two weeks. Some things we have planned are:

• history study of his life.
• field trip to the Gilcrease Museum to see his work up close.
• creating a terrarium for science to study nature as Peale did in his own garden at Belfield.
• creating our own living history museum, complete with stuffed animals and local flora and fauna.
• We may “sell” tickets to family to come and tour our museum and see our hard work.
• Coloring pages, definitions and other examples of Gabrielle’s work to file in her notebook. We will keep track of the four keys that we discover in our studies and document and color them.
• Copying Peale’s art and discussing his influences and the attributes of his work
• We will still work on handwriting and mathematics each day and try to fit it with Peale as we can.

This is just to give you an idea of how PA works for me. We won’t study in this way every time, that is, one single topic. I will begin to develop lessons in unit study fashion according to the Links on the Chain of Christianity. What I mean is we will study art, history, science and the other subjects that fit along the same link.