Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
October 27, 1821
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 116
Additional Source Text:
"So much used by the natives of the East indies, nearly in the same manner that we use Tobacco."
Notes:
Areca is a genus of about 50 species of palms in the family Arecaceae, found in humid tropical forests from the islands of the Philippines, Malaysia and India, across Southeast Asia to Melanesia. Wikipedia
William Barnwell, a native of Ireland, arrived in Philadelphia about 1792, after serving as a physician with the British East India Company. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1802. Two years later, Thomas Jefferson appointed Barnwell physician of the marine hospital at New Orleans, where he served until his removal in 1812. In 1819 he was aboard the U.S. Navy frigate Congress as it became the first American warship to visit China, from which it returned to the U.S. in May 1821. Barnwell presumably acquired his fifteen donations to the Peale Museum on that voyage. Jefferson Papers, Founders Online, National Archives / https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-36-02-0278
