Mahogany, brass, green baize; 25.4 x 61.3 x 43.2 (10 x 24 1/8 x 17 in.) Monticello, VA.
Jefferson used a series of these machines for making copies of letters from 1806 until his death. As Peale made improvements on the original design, Jefferson would get a new one. By 1809 he wrote that the use of the polygraph has spoiled me for the old copying press the copies of which are hardly ever legible.... I could not, now therefore, live without the Polygraph.
Charles Willson Peale, despite his devotion to the taxonomic and contemplative majesty of the natural world, nevertheless loved novelties and used all sorts of amusements to attract customers to his museum. He eventually resorted to hiring a popular musical performer who played five different instruments simultaneously, using all parts of his body. Following Peale’s death the museum passed into the enterprising hands of P. T. Barnum, becoming part of his traveling circus — a romantic ending for an Enlightenment institution.