Peale’s New York Penthouse

If you could fly slowly above Manhattan, floating just above the roof tops, you might notice hidden among the harsh glaring towers of glass a delicate structure that looks as if it where plucked out of an elegant past, and placed atop a tall brownstone. You might try to see into its tall stained glass windows, but unless the light was just right you would see nothing.

Few people have seen this magnificent museum owned solely by one man -- Charles Wilson Peale III. Here he lives, happy to be forgotten; happy to be with his arcane collection that he and his ancestors have assembled with ancient money going back a dozen generations. Peale is the last of his clan. Unperturbed by his lack of progeny he steadfastly serves his one purpose of acquiring objects and treasures for his for his gallery of the obscure.

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