Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
October 27, 1821
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 116
Additional Source Text:
"With specimens of the cloth, a rope, and a man and womens shirt made of the same."
Notes:
Abacá (Musa textilis) is a species of banana native to the Philippines, grown as a commercial crop in the Philippines, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. The plant, also known as Manila hemp, has great economic importance, being harvested for its fiber, also called Manila hemp, extracted from the leaf-stems. Wikipedia
William Barnwell, a native of Ireland, arrived in Philadelphia about 1792, after serving as a physician with the British East India Company. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1802. Two years later, Thomas Jefferson appointed Barnwell physician of the marine hospital at New Orleans, where he served until his removal in 1812. In 1819 he was aboard the U.S. Navy frigate Congress as it became the first American warship to visit China, from which it returned to the U.S. in May 1821. Barnwell presumably acquired his fifteen donations to the Museum on that voyage / Jefferson Papers, Founders Online, National Archives / https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-36-02-0278
