Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
By 1825
Primary Source Reference:
Anne Newport Royall, Sketches of the History, Life, and Manners, in the United States (New Haven, 1826), p. 213
Additional Source Text:
"This has a very slender body, and in appearance between a deer and a horse: its lean long fore legs contrasted with the shortness of the hind legs, gave it an unnatural and awkward appearance; it resembles a horse when in the act of rising, with his fore feet stretched out and his hinder parts on the ground."
Notes:
Cameleopard is an archaic English name for the giraffe, referring to its camel-like shape and leopard-like coloration. Peale's specimen belonged to one of four species of the genus Giraffa currently recognized. Anne Newport Royall saw the giraffe in the Peale Museum when she passed through the city about 1825. Another giraffe, probably recently arrived, was exhibited in the fall of 1834, per the newpaper notice pictured here.
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Giraffe
Current Scientific Name
Giraffa (genus)
