Strangers – Today

Rembrandt Peale, February 22, 1778 – October 3, 1860

Rembrandt Peale was an American artist, known primarily for his portraiture. He was the son of artist Charles Willson Peale, and was a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Peale traveled Europe, studying with painter Benjamin West in London, and being offered a position as court painter to Napoleon after spending time in Paris. Peale returned to the United States, opening the Baltimore Museum in 1814, now known as the Peale Museum. Peale's portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were particularly well-known; his work is collected in a number of public institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution, National Portrait Gallery, Baltimore Museum of Art, and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The Record of Strangers indicates that Peale and other members of his family visited multiple times throughout the Athenaeum's history.

Portrait courtesy of Smithsonian Open Access — Source — Source — Source

Charles Creighton Stratton, March 6, 1796 – March 30, 1859

Charles C. Stratton was an American politician from New Jersey. He was elected a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 1837 and again in 1841. He held the office of 15th Governor of New Jersey from 1845 until 1848. His wife, Sarah Taggart, was from Philadelphia.

Portrait courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Charles Simms

Charles Simms was an American naval officer. He participated in the 1855 search and rescue expedition organized to find explorer Elisha Kent Kane, who in turn had gone missing during his search for Sir John Franklin and his crew. Both crews went missing in the Baffin Bay area of the Arctic Ocean, between Greenland and Canada. During the expedition, Simms was in command of the steamship Arctic. The expedition was successful in finding and returning Kane and his crew to the United States.

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Alexander Avinov, March 18, 1786 — September 30, 1854

Alexander Avinov was a Russian naval officer. He studied to be a naval cadet and by the age of 14 was already taking part in naval expeditions. He was sent to England to study in the Royal Navy and was soon serving under Admiral Horatio Nelson. In 1820, Avinov took part in an expedition to circumnavigate the globe, and had reached the rank of captain by 1820. In 1829, he was sent to the United States to study shipbuilding techniques in the country, and was accompanied by shipbuilder and engineer Ivan Amosov. The two are shown visiting the Athenaeum together on this occasion, as well as in 1830. After Avinov returned to Russia, he was appointed commandant of the port of Sevastopol, and later its military governor. In 1852, two years before his death, Avinov was named Admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy.

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Rufus Choate, October 1, 1799 – July 13, 1859

Rufus Choate was an American lawyer and politician. Born in Massachusetts, he showed enthusiasm and aptitude for academic pursuits at a young age, and entered Dartmouth College at age 16, where he graduated valedictorian. Choate then attended Harvard Law School, was subsequently admitted to the bar, and began practicing in Massachusetts. He was successful and well respected in his profession, and soon turned to politics, serving in the state legislature from 1825 to 1829. Choate also served at the federal level, first in the House of Representatives and later in the Senate, until 1845. He then returned to his law practice. Choate received attention for the first successful use of the "sleepwalking defense", in which he secured the acquittal of Albert Tirrell, accused of murdering sex worker Maria Bickford, by claiming that he did not murder her, but if he did, he did it in his sleep and was therefore innocent.

Portrait courtesy of Smithsonian Open Access — Source — Source — Source

Ivan Amosov, November 12, 1800 — June 1, 1878

Ivan Amosov was a Russian shipbuilder and engineer. He graduated from the School of Naval Architecture and in 1829 accompanied Captain Alexander Avinov to the United States to further study the country's shipbuilding techniques. The two are shown visiting the Athenaeum together on this occasion, as well as in 1830. Upon his return to Russia, Amosov worked for two decades at the Okhtinsky Admiralty Shipyard, building some of the most technologically advanced ships of the time. Later, he was appointed ship-building inspector at Kronstadt.

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Talbot Wilson Chambers, 1819 — 1896

Talbot W. Chambers was an American clergyman and religious author. He was a  pastor at the North Dutch Reformed Church in New York City, and published many educational works on the subject of religion and the Bible. He also participated in the Fulton Street Noon Prayer Meetings, which were the subject of one of his publications. He provides an account of the prayer meetings and discusses how the meetings grew to spawn a religious revival of sorts in the city and beyond. This visit to the Athenaeum came a few years before the meetings and Chambers' subsequent writing on the meetings.

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Saml. A. Harvey

Saml. A. Harvey (presumably Samuel) was a visitor from Demerara, a region in South America that is now part of the country of Guyana. The Record of Strangers shows another visit by him in 1857.

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Charles Inches, March 13, 1808 — January 22, 1888

Visitor from Boston, Massachusetts.

Zebulon Barton Stout, March 26, 1793 — July 17, 1864

Z. Barton Stout was an American lawyer and politician. He was a member of the New York state assembly, and was involved in multiple agricultural groups, including holding the position of Vice President of the Ontario Country Agricultural Society. Archival documents also show evidence of Stout having correspondence with President James Madison. Stout visited the Athenaeum multiple times over the years.

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