Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
N.d.
Primary Source Reference:
The Philadelphia Museum, or Register of Natural History and the Arts, 1, no. 1 (January 1824): 3
Additional Source Text:
"Among the most interesting cabinets may be mentioned the Anatomical, in which is deposited the beautiful and valuable collections of Dr. Harlan, in Craniology and Comparative Anatomy."
Notes:
Richard Harlan (1796-1843), M.D., was an American paleontologist, anatomist, and physician. He was appointed the Peale Museum's professor of comparative anatomy in April 1821. Five years after this 1824 mention of his cabinet, he proposed a course of lectures in that field. When the trustees refused him permission to do so, he withdrew the various loans he had made to the Peale Museum. A good sense of the extent of Harlan's cabinet may be had from this announcement of the proposed sale of his collection in 1838 in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 19, no. 14 (7 Nov 1838): 225: "There are articles, and some of them of rare value, amounting in all to 700 specimens. First, there are thirty skeletons of animals, birds, &c., including the bones of a horse 22 hands high, and the skeleton of a man 6 feet high, as a rider. Next, 41 skulls, each one possessing rare interest, either on account of its individual history, or the race of men to which it belonged. Besides, there are 102 skulls of animals, which are not to be found in the same order and of equal value in America. The immense number of teeth, and preparations in spirit, together with the fossil remains of extinct families of animals, are too numerous for specification in this place. In this group are 200 labelled specimens from fossil bones, shells, &c., illustrative of Whealand and Tilgate forest, and 100 of the chalk fossils, in England."
The entire collection was destroyed in a warehouse fire after having been removed from the Peale Museum. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 20, no. 21 (3 July 1839): 338
For the skeletons of the horse and rider, see the entry "Skeleton of the Mammoth Horse, which was exhibited a few years ago in Philadelphia."
Many other animal skeletons prepared by Harlan are separately listed and represented in this website.
See also Matthew Halley, "Harlan of Harlan’s Hawk: hustling skulls since 1826" at https://matthewhalley.wordpress.com/2020/10/23/harlan-of-harlans-hawk-h…
Specimen Type:
Skeletons/skulls/bones
