Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
May 17, 1815
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 76
Additional Source Text:
"On the 4th of May 1812 at the distance of 40 miles from St. Vincence. About that period the eruption of the Volcano was the greatest."
The donor was "of New Haven."
Notes:
Soufrière Saint Vincent is an active volcano on the island of Saint Vincent in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean. The eruption of 30 Apr 1812 was the subject of a painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) pictured here.
See also the entry "Specimens of the ashes of the Volcano in the Island of St. Vincents."
The donor was John Mix (1751-1820), who operated a museum in New Haven, Conn. See his publication A catalogue of a part of the curiosities, both natural and artificial, contained in the museum in New-Haven (New Haven, 1812). The year following his death much of Mix's museum was acquired by the New-England Museum (1818-ca. 1838) in Boston. See also Christine DeLucia, "Fugitive Collections in New England Indian Country: Indigenous Material Culture and Early American History Making at Ezra Stiles's Yale Museum," William & Mary Quarterly, 3d ser. 75, no. 1 (Jan 2018): 143-145.
