What was the first museum in the United States of America?

Can I get two guesses? 1) The Museum of Natural History in NYC and 2) The Smithsonian. I am resisting the urge to Google.

@janbb I did Google and I would have ventured a guess alongside you but, surprise…the oldest/1st museum in the U.S. was The Charleston Museum. Founded in 1773 and opened to the public in 1824. Its collections include Natural history, local history and decorative arts and the oldest known fossil of an extinct prehistoric bird. Well..I learned something new today. :-)

My first thought was the Peale Museum in Baltimore.

I was thinking roughly 1810 but Wikipedia tells me it opened in 1786.

I remember the Peale because this painting instantly popped into my mind when I saw the question. Maybe it was on the cover of a book?

These types of questions are why I stay around. *BRILLIANT question.

And I think you all just answered a life long question I’ve been asking myself. ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ I think I need to go back to school and be a museum coordinator. Wholly cow.

@cazzie Being a museum curator was a career that attracted me early on.

I grew up, literally, across the street from a museum. The Peshtigo Fire Museum. It NEVER occurred to me. How does that happen?

My brother worked at the local public museum as a teenager. He got a bachelors in anthropology and then a masters in museumology (yes, they really call it that).

He’s had some really cool jobs. Through him I’ve met people who restore military jets and I’ve held (with gloves) some of the million+ years old bones of our ancestors that Dr. Leakey brought from Africa.

@Call_Me_Jay That is super cool!

Our local Natural History Museum is going to be hosting the Human Body exhibit in April! I’m so excited!

@cazzie Most museums have volunteer opportunities. That’s how my brother started.

The Peshtigo Fire happened the same day as the Great Chicago Fire. What’s odd is that 1,500 or more died in Peshtigo, but only 300 in Chicago, where 100,000 lost their homes.

I drive through Wisconsin a few times a year and think about the fire when I see the Peshtigo River signs.

@Call_Me_Jay I know the story of Peshtigo well. :)

No doubt you know. Did you live in Australia at on time, is my memory correct? The Peshtigo fire makes me think of the terrible fires in down there in recent years. People living in the country and everything for miles around is burned to bare ground. “Good morning, Earth as you know it no longer exists.”

@Call_Me_Jay Seems to be happening around Gatlinburg now.

I was in New Zealand for 15 years, not Australia, but I visited several times.
One of my relatives sent me a book ‘Firestorm at Peshtigo’ and it was a really good read. It’s lead me to put another book on my list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Increase_A._Lapham The story of Increase Lapham sounds really good.