13 Facts About Moses Kimball

Moses Kimball was an American politician, museum curator and owner, and showman.

Moses Kimball was born in Ipswich to David and Nancy Moses Kimball, and raised in Rockport, Massachusetts but moved to Boston at 15 to seek his fortune.

Moses Kimball was ruined first in the "Eastern Land" speculation, and then again in 1833 in his purchase of the New England Galaxy, one of the earliest weekly newspapers of Boston, which was sold after a few months at a serious loss.

In 1838 Moses Kimball purchased most of the New England Museum, added to it, made arrangements for a lease of the building on Tremont and Bromfield streets.

In 1840, Moses Kimball travelled just twenty miles northwest to the new mill city, Lowell, MA and founded the Lowell Museum.

Moses Kimball brought with him a large oblong box containing a most unusual curiosity: an embalmed mermaid purchased at great price near Calcutta by a Boston sea captain in 1817.

That same year, Moses Kimball added a theater to his museum, although he called it a "lecture-room" in deference to the Puritan feeling in Boston.

Moses Kimball served in both chambers of the Boston City Council.

In 1849 and 1850 Moses Kimball was elected as a member of the Boston Common Council from Ward 10, serving in 1850 and 1851.

In 1860 Moses Kimball ran as the Republican Party candidate, for Mayor of the city of Boston losing to Joseph Wightman.

On that day, December 13,1860, Moses Kimball received 5,674 votes to Wightman's 8,834 votes.

Moses Kimball made three journeys to Europe, in 1867,1872 and 1877 to 1878.

In 1879 Moses Kimball donated to Boston a copy of Thomas Ball's sculpture Emancipation Group.