Object Status:
Extant
Accession Date:
By 1805
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale, ca. 1807. "Louisiana Tanager." Watercolor and pencil on paper. American Philosophical Society (APS) Library, Peale-Sellers Family Collection, Mss.B.P31, vol. 148.
Additional Source Text:
Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) brought the first specimens to Philadelphia in 1807 and deposited them in Peale's Museum. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) drew one of the specimens, a male, but it was never engraved (APS Library, Mss.B.P31; reproduced in Miller 1988, Selected Papers, 2, part 1: 529).
Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) described this species under the name "Louisiana Tanager / Tanagra ludoviciana" in American Ornithology vol. 3 (Pl. 20), where he cited "Peale's Museum, No. 6236" (Wilson 1811: 27). Wilson also illustrated one of Lewis's skins, writing: "The frail remains of the bird now under consideration, as well as of the other two, have been set up by Mr. Peale, in his Museum, with as much neatness as the state of the skins would permit. Of three of these, which were put into my hands for examination, the most perfect was selected for the drawing" (Wilson 1811: 27). Wilson's original drawing is extant in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (ANSP) Archives, coll. 79. / https://ansp.org/research/library/archives/0000-0099/lawson79 (drawing) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175516#page/35/mode/1up (text) / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/175516#page/34/mode/1up (plate)
Notes:
Peale's drawing of this species was extremely small, as the perspective of the photo demonstrates. For details about the 1807 timeline of Peale's drawings of Lewis's specimens, see Matthew R. Halley, 2023, “The forgotten history of Oreortyx pictus (mountain quail), discovered by the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1806,” Archives of Natural History 50: 337-346. / https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0865 / https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0865 Here, for simplicity, we state that Titian R. Peale (1799-1885) deposited the Long Expedition specimens at Peale's Museum. However, it should be noted that the specimens did not belong to Titian, and were not his to give away. Officially, they were the property of the United States government, and as such were formally deposited by Major Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864), who led the government-sponsored expedition. The Peale Museum Accessions Book, pp. 112-113 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, coll. 0481) contains an "Invoice of Zoological Specimens and Drawings prepared by Titian Peale, Assistant Naturalist for the Exploring Expedition, and deposited in the Philadelphia Museum by Majr. S. H. Long, Maj. U.S. Engr. pursuant to instructions of the Secretary of War." At the conclusion of the invoice, "Rubens Peale [1784-1865], manager" signed the following statement: "Received, Philadelphia Museum, March 23d. 1821. of Majr. S. H. Long, the several articles, specified in the above Invoice, as a deposit for safe keeping, preservation and Exhibition; and I hereby promise, as agent for the Institution to hold the said articles subject to the orders of the War Department, thru the said Maj. Long." (HSP, coll. 0481)
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Western Tanager
Current Scientific Name
Cardinalidae | Piranga ludoviciana
