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Built in 1786-89, Philosophical Hall has been the home of the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in America. Founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, the society pursued "useful knowledge." One of its early members, artist Charles Willson Peale, operated a museum here displaying natural and man made curiosities, along with a noisy outdoor menagerie featuring baboons, panthers, bears, elk, and a bald eagle. The American Philosophical Society still owns and occupies the building.
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States
