History of the Museum

"The Peale Museum was awunderkammer of the first order, and its famous mastodon skeleton can be seen looming in the shadows behind the curtain.  Peale financed scientific expeditions to collect natural history specimens for his marvelous museum, which was eventually sold to P.T. Barnum and fellow showman Moses Kimbell, who had previously collaborated to exploit "a curiosity supposed to be a mermaid" but which was in fact a clever fake."Charles Wilson Peale, 1822, self-portriat, The Artist in his Museum.
Source link here.