Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
January 7, 1823
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 123
Notes:
There are many species of the genus Gorgonia, commonly known as the sea fan or sea feather, a sessile colonial soft coral in the family Gorgoniidae, one of which, Gorgonia mariae, which occurs in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean, is pictured here.
Irishman Turner Camac (1751-1830) had been involved in copper mining and canal building in Ireland and had served in the military in India with the East India Company. He settled in Philadelphia in 1804 with his wife Sarah Masters, whose family owned vast tracts of land in the city.
Current Common Name:
Wide-mesh sea fan
Current Scientific Name
Gorgonia mariae
