The Exhumation of the Mastodon by Charles Willson Peale: Painting Paleontological Fieldwork as History

Abstract: This essay takes a close look at Charles Willson Peale's painting, The Exhumation of the Mastodon (1804-1806). As one of the rare examples of, and probably the first, oil on canvas depiction of paleontological fieldwork, The Exhumation stands as a unique object of consideration for historians of natural sciences. Peale transformed the challenging task of collecting fossils from watery pits into a spectacle of organized labor and technical ingenuity. Based on Peale's correspondence and a comparison with one of his earlier paintings, this essay argues that Peale attempted to elevate the recovery of fossil remains to the status of an historical event worthy of memorialization. This integration of paleontological fieldwork into the history of the young American republic shows how the ability to reconstruct the geological past came to play a significant role in territorial claims at the start of the nineteenth century. Taking a close look at The Exhumation can assist in reframing our approach to the history of paleontology and its entanglements with labor, technology, and power.