Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
June 18, 1812
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 61
Notes:
The 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes were a series of intense intraplate earthquakes beginning on 16 Dec 1811, followed by an aftershock on the same day. Two additional earthquakes of similar magnitude followed in January and February 1812. They remain the most powerful earthquakes to hit the contiguous United States east of the Rocky Mountains in recorded history.
William Leigh Pierce, of Savannah, was the author of An Account of the Great Earthquakes, in the Western States, particularly on the Mississippi River, December 16-23, 1811 (Newburyport, Mass., 1812). He transmitted the donation to Peale with a letter on 4 June 1812. Selected Papers, 3: 151-152
