PEOPLE OF INDEPENDENCE
Second Bank Museum,
Philadelphia, PA
National Park Service

This extensive collection of portraits of our country’s founders by Charles Willson Peale is installed in the beautiful 19th century Second Bank building in Independence National Park. Alongside the portraits, we present the sitters’ words to evoke their time and views about freedom and democracy, as well as the practical issues they faced as they struggled to form our nation.

Charles Willson Peale’s Museum, a “cabinet of curiosities,” and one of our country’s first museums is suggested in this multi-media presentation. Real objects and images fade in and out of the boxes to interpret the shift from the chaos of making a new nation to the classical and ordered ideal of our founders.

Visitors can learn more about the individuals who sat for Peale’s paintings in this interactive study gallery adjacent to the main museum spaces.