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at The Peel Museum & Botanical Garden

Foyer

The Foyer offered guests an immediate impression of the Peel family’s wealth and refinement. The grand staircase—built from oak, pine, and native Arkansas black walnut—served as a focal point of craftsmanship. Intricate faux wood graining on the doorways to the Parlor and Study, applied by skilled artisans, added another layer of elegance. Transom windows above adjoining rooms and the home’s central tower reflect 19th-century strategies for cooling and airflow in a time before electricity.

Staircase

Faux Graining

Transom Windows

The Parlor

As the heart of Victorian social life, the Parlor showcased the Peel family’s refinement, hospitality, and adherence to cultural norms. Courting sofas and a spiral courting candle reflect the room’s role in structured courtship rituals, while an 1872 Steinway piano highlights music as a key form of entertainment. The wallpaper—painstakingly restored using original 19th-century fragments—features Mrs. Peel’s favorite color, pink, adding a personal touch to this elegant gathering space.

Courting Sofa

Courting Candle

Piano

Wallpaper

The Study

The Study served as Congressman Peel’s private workspace—designed to be darker and more formal than the rest of the home. Decorated to reflect his legal and political career, it includes a restored Arts & Crafts Movement wallpaper, popular during the late Victorian era. A curio cabinet filled with geological specimens reflects the Victorian era’s passion for collecting and display. Peel’s decade in Congress and ongoing legal work helped shape the region and connected him to Native nations across the country.

Desk

Curio Cabinet

Wallpaper

The Dining Room

The Dining Room was a formal space where the Peel family entertained guests and reinforced social customs. Reserved for family members aged 13 and older, it reflected Mary Emaline Peel’s emphasis on etiquette and hospitality. Meals were served through a discreet walk-through pantry from the prep kitchen, allowing staff to work without disrupting guests. Artifacts like Congressman Peel’s monogrammed china and silverware—and a silver pitcher bearing Mrs. Peel’s initials—highlight the family’s prominence and enduring legacy.

Walk-Through Pantry

Peel's China

Silver Pitcher

Silverware

Outdoor Kitchen

Originally built as a separate structure, the Outdoor Kitchen reflects common 19th-century practices aimed at reducing fire risk from wood-burning stoves. It houses the home’s only wood-burning fireplace, larger and deeper than the others, used for preparing meals and preserving food. This space was central to daily life on the Peel property—where herbs from Mary Emaline’s garden may have been dried for cooking, and fresh farm-made butter was probably shaped using carved molds.

Fireplace

Buttermold

Dried Herbs

Upstairs

The rooms upstairs are more simply decorated compared to those downstairs, reflecting their private nature. Guests were not invited into the upstairs portion of the home, which housed the family’s personal rooms and bedrooms. These spaces contained some of their belongings, along with photographs of both immediate and extended family members.

When the family moved into the home, the oldest Peel child was 21, while the youngest had not yet been born. In fact, Mary Emaline was pregnant with their youngest child, Mary Ruby, who was the only one of their children born in this house. Alice was already married and never lived here, and it is believed that James, who was already practicing law by 1875, didn’t live here either. The seven other Peel children would have lived in the house until they established themselves in society, either through marriage or career.

Main Bedroom

The Main Bedroom served as a private retreat for Samuel and Mary Peel, offering a glimpse into domestic life for a prominent couple in the late 1800s. The horsehair-filled mattress reflects the comfort and quality typical of well-off families of the era. The restored blue-painted floor reveals the home’s original palette, discovered through careful testing during renovation. On the bed, a Baltimore friend quilt—handmade by one of the Peels’ descendants—connects the family’s history across generations.

Horsehair Mattress

Blue Floor

Baltimore Friend Quilt

Boys’ Room

This room was shared by the three Peel sons—James, David, and Frank—each of whom went on to lead notable careers in law, banking, and journalism. Furnishings reflect both their childhood and early adulthood, with items like the Remington typewriter used for schoolwork and correspondence, and the Victrola phonograph offering a glimpse into early 20th-century home entertainment. A family heirloom older than the house itself, “Bucky” the rocking horse was cherished by generations of Peel children and remains a beloved symbol of their legacy.

Bucky

Victrola Phonograph

Typewriter

Girls’ Room

The Peel family had four daughters: Alice, Fannie, Elizabeth, and Ruby. Elizabeth and Ruby spent the most time in this space, preparing for their futures as wives and daughters in the late 1800s. Objects like the hairbrush reflect period beauty standards, including elaborate hairstyles that emphasized femininity and status. The tatted bed covering, made by hand over seven years, showcases the skill and patience valued in domestic crafts. A portrait by Texas artist Emma Richardson Cherry ties the room to a broader history of women’s lives and creative expression during the era.

Hairbrush

Katherine Painting

Tatted Bed Covering

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