Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
July 27, 1803
Primary Source Reference:
Charles Willson Peale to Thomas Paine, 27 July 1803; Selected Papers, 2, part 1: 587-588
Additional Source Text:
"The models of your invention of Iron Bridges are very often called for."
Notes:
"Paine's invention of the iron bridge dates back to his residence in Philadelphia in 1786. In 1787, after having failed to convince the Pennsylvania legislature to adopt his design for the first permanent bridge across the Schuylkill River, he went to France and then to England, and, until his involvement in the French Revolution, spent most of his time promoting his bridge design. When Paine returned to the United States and visited Washington D.C., in early 1803, he carried several models of his design with him, hoping both to win Jefferson's support and to persuade Congress to appropriate money for a 400-foot experimental model. When this failed, he left Washington and made arrangements for the models to be sent to" Peale. Selected Papers, 2, part 1: 588n.
Two models of iron bridges were displayed in Philadelphia, "one in paste- board, the other cast in metal," according to Paine. See https://www.thomaspaine.org/works/essays/other/the-construction-of-iron… and Edward G. Gray, "Tom Paine's Bridge" at http://commonplace.online/article/tom-paines-bridge/; and Gray's Tom Paine's Iron Bridge: Building a United States (New York, 2016).
