Thomas Jefferson Papers
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To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Willson Peale, 3 June 1804

From Charles Willson Peale

Sunday. [3 June 1804]

Dear Sir

The Baron requests me to present his compliments that he will do himself the pleasure to wait on you with Messrs. Bonpland & Montufar. Doctr Woodhouse also desires me to include his respects that he will also wait on you. Doctr Fothergill is not at present within, but I shall see him this afternoon—& I believe he will isteem your invitation, an honour not to be neglected—& therefore I answer for his attendance—

Amediately after I have dined I will remove to the Tavern in your vicinity & there wait on you—

with high respect yrs.

C W Peale

RC (DLC); partially dated; endorsed by TJ: “Humboldt Baron de. Bonpland Montufar de Quito, sur la montagne de 1450. toises de hauteur audessus du niveau de la mer, et a 2 lieues de la ligne” (on a mountain of 1,450 fathoms above sea level and two leagues from the equator).

Peale, baron von Humboldt, and the rest of the traveling party arrived in Washington on 1 June. Peale called on TJ the following morning to make arrangements for delivering and demonstrating the polygraph that he had brought with him. Later that same morning the visitors called on the president. On the 4th, they saw the Washington Navy Yard and the Capitol before enjoying a “very elegant dinner” at the President’s House. Peale was particularly impressed that “not a single toast was given or called for, or Politicks touched on.” Rather, the animated discussion revolved around natural history, material improvements, and national customs. Subsequently, the party visited Mount Vernon and dined at the Madisons’, the Thorntons’, and a second time at the President’s House. Bonpland and Montufar, who spoke no English, appear to have left little impression and yielded all attention to Humboldt, with whom, Dolley Madison informed her sister, “All the ladies say they are in love.” He was, she added, “the most polite, modest, well-informed, and interesting traveller we have ever met.” TJ was reported to have been “delighted” by Humboldt, whom he described as the “most scientific man of his age he had ever seen,” and Gallatin, despite finding Humboldt’s excited, multilingual speaking style offputting, characterized the visit as “an exquisite intellectual treat” (Peale, Papers description begins Lillian B. Miller and others, eds., The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family, New Haven, 1983-2000, 5 vols. in 6 description ends , v. 2, pt. 2:690-9; Lucia B. Cutts, Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison [Boston, 1886], 45-6; Gerald W. Gawalt, “‘Strict Truth’: The Narrative of William Armistead Burwell,” VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1893- description ends , 101 [1993], 115; Herman R. Friis, “Baron Alexander von Humboldt’s Visit to Washington, D.C., June 1 through June 13, 1804,” RCHS description begins Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 1895-1989 description ends , 60-2 [1963], 26).

At their first meeting during the visit, TJ suggested that Peale make Washington’s City tavern his base (Peale, Papers description begins Lillian B. Miller and others, eds., The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family, New Haven, 1983-2000, 5 vols. in 6 description ends , v. 2, pt. 2:690).

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