Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
June 18, 1812
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 61
Additional Source Text:
"From the 16th to the 23d of December last by the donor see his letter No. 100."
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). His letter to Peale of 4 June 1812 transmitting the donation provides much detail about the specimens. Selected Papers, 3: 151-152
