Biographical Information

The son of the famous colonial painter and scientist Charles Willson Peale, Raphaelle assisted his father in the establishment of a natural history museum, wrote papers describing new designs for stoves and fireplaces, patented a process for preserving ships' bottoms and pilings from marine worms, published a theory of the universe, and developed recipes for preserving specimens at the Peale Museum. As a boy he learned oil and miniature portraiture in his father's studio and later became the first American still life painter of note.