Behind the Crimson Curtain: The Rise and Fall of Peale's Museum

In 1786, Charles Willson Peale created the most important, and most famous, museum in Revolutionary-era America. A fusion of natural history and art, Peale's Philadelphia Museum was meant to be an embodiment of the Enlightenment. Behind the Crimson Curtain provides a unique window into science, art, and the Enlightenment in early America, and how these fed the appetites of a public hungry for "rational entertainment."

About the Author

Lee Dugatkin is a professor of biology and a College of Arts and Science Distinguished Scholar at the University of Louisville.

Praise for Lee Dugatkin's Earlier Books

For Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose, University of Chicago Press, 2009:

"Fast-paced, snappy and suspenseful." —Financial Times

For How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog), University of Chicago Press, 2017:

"Sparkling ... part science, part Russian fairy tale, and part spy thriller."

—New York Times Book Review

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