A mural at SEPTA’s Independence Hall station misspells another historic name: Charles Willson Peale, an artist of the American Revolution

Faye Anderson, a public policy consultant and community historian, was on her way to Independence Hall a couple of weeks ago for her research on Moses Williams, a Black silhouette artist who had been enslaved by Charles Willson Peale, a Philadelphia artist known for his portraits of leading figures of the American Revolution.

She paused at SEPTA’s Portal to Discovery subway mural at the Fifth Street/Independence Hall station to visit its portrait of James Forten, the wealthy Black owner of a sail-making company who employed both Black and white workers.

As Anderson contemplated Forten’s image — and her plans to learn more about Williams — she glanced at the nearby mural image of Peale and noticed that an “l” in Peale’s middle name, Willson, was missing.

The Jan. 9 observation reminded Anderson of her first visit to the subway mural four years ago, in 2021, when she noticed that a panel about abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass had spelled his first name as “Fredrick.”

At the time, Anderson alerted SEPTA by speaking out on Twitter, now known as X. While calling the collage of images in the station “beautiful,” she advised SEPTA to “correct the embarrassing misspelling ASAP.”

This time, however, she alerted The Inquirer to the misspelling.

Peale is known as the painter of the American Revolution because of his many portraits of George Washington and other major figures. He was also a natural historian.

“Here, you have the world coming to Philadelphia in 2026 [for the nation’s 250th birthday] and we have Peale, a founder of PAFA who is known for his portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson [with his name spelled wrong],” Anderson said. “People who are coming here will know who Charles Willson Peale is.

“It’s more embarrassing than the misspelling of Frederick Douglass’ name.”

SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said Thursday that transit agency officials met with the mural artist, Tom Judd, last week and came up with a plan to correct the misspelling of Peale’s middle name. A timeline has not been established. Attempts to reach Judd for comment were unsuccessful.

“Moving forward, SEPTA is going to review its processes for projects like this to try to ensure that these types of mistakes do not occur,” Busch wrote in an email. “We regret the error, and we are working to get it fixed as soon as possible.”

In 1784, Peale opened Peale’s Museum in his Lombard Street home to showcase what he called “worthy” leaders of the Revolutionary War. The museum — one of the first museums in the country — would later be known as the Philadelphia Museum. Two years after it opened, he added a natural history collection that included a nearly complete skeleton of a mastodon.

Peale’s museum expanded, and, in 1794, Peale moved his family and the museum into the building that houses the American Philosophical Society at Fifth and Chestnut Streets. By 1802, the museum moved into the second floor of the former Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall. Three years later, Peale, sculptor William Rush, and other business leaders and artists cofounded the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Anderson said she stopped by the portrait of Forten, who lived at 366 Lombard St., because Forten might have been a neighbor of Moses Williams.

Williams spent his childhood as an enslaved member of Peale’s household, which, at one time, was also at Third and Lombard. Williams earned his freedom at age 27.

Anderson is researching to apply for a historical marker for Williams, who worked at Peale’s Philadelphia Museum, creating silhouette images of museum visitors using the physiognotrace “face-tracing” machine. She said contemporary artist Kara Walker cites Williams as an influence on her work.

As for whether Forten and Peale were neighbors at Third and Lombard, David R. Brigham, the librarian and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, said he cannot be absolutely sure if they lived there at the same time.

Forten is first listed as living in the 300 block of Lombard Street in 1807, and Peale moved to Fifth and Chestnut in 1794. But James Peale, Charles Willson Peale’s brother, lived on that same block in 1807, Brigham said.

City records also show that Forten’s previous address was on Shippen Street in 1799 and that Raphaelle Peale, one of Charles Willson Peale’s 17 or 18 children, lived on Shippen at that time.

“In all likelihood, the Peales and Fortens knew one another, though I cannot prove it,” Brigham said.

The Portal to Discovery mural is a collage of dozens of portraits, images, and drawings showing Philadelphia’s early history that SEPTA commissioned through its Art in Transit program. The art project was part of a major $20.4 million reconstruction of the station, completed in 2020. The mural was completed in 2021.

It was the first time the station had been renovated since 1974, when officials gave it an update in time for the 1976 Bicentennial celebrations.

Created by Philadelphia artist Judd, the mural presents a broader, inclusive history, depicting white Founding Fathers alongside Black abolitionists and community leaders like Forten and William Still.

Just as Forten’s portrait is placed near an illustration of Peale, a portrait of Still is next to Thomas Jefferson’s. And the writer, poet, and abolitionist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, a Black woman, is next to a portrait of Elizabeth Peel, the subject of a portrait by artist Benjamin West about 1757.

Jane Golden, executive director of Mural Arts Philadelphia, which was not involved in this SEPTA mural, said mistakes happen on occasion, and there are usually efforts to correct them once noticed.

One positive way to look at the mural mishaps, she said, is that people do care about public art.

“I think people do notice and take this as a testament that people love art and our city,” she said.