Take an audio tour of The Peale, Baltimore's Community Museum and the oldest museum building in the United States! Listen to WYPR's Aaron Henkin recount the fascinating stories that surround this historic building. Includes 16 stops.
A big draw at Peale’s Baltimore Museum was the new technology of gaslight, which allowed Rembrandt to keep the museum open after dark and sell more tickets to help pay back the investors who had funded the museum’s construction. It is said that people would gather outside the museum on Holliday Street to marvel at the light that came through its windows – they had never seen an artificial light burn so brightly. Peale manufactured the gas by burning pitch in a shed in the Museum's back yard.
In 1816 city leaders commissioned Peale and his partners to install the nation's first gas streetlight network across Baltimore, giving rise to its nickname, "Light City." The first streetlight they installed is just two blocks away from the Peale Museum building, on the corner of Holliday and Baltimore Streets. The "Baltimore Gas and Light" company Peale founded to do this work is now called BGE – Baltimore Gas and Electric – one of the oldest companies in the world.
Volunteers from BGE and Baltimore Foundry Works have installed and maintain vintage streetlights in front of the Peale Museum building and in its garden, as well as a replica “Ring of Fire” – the kind of gaslight chandelier that Rembrandt Peale used to illuminate his galleries and demonstrate the new technology in his museum. You can see it on the 3rd floor.
