In this painting by Samuel F. B. Morse (the inventor of the Morse Code and telegraph), you can gather a sense of a museum gallery in the Louvre in the 1800s. Morse’s intent was to educate Americans about the great masters of art from Europe. He traveled to France in hopes of replicating a gallery that he had once visited. To his surprise, the works by the masters had been replaced with contemporary artists. So, on a mobile cart, he rolled through the Louvre searching for the works he wanted to include in his painting.

Although this image does not accurately depict a specific gallery from the museum during this time, it does provide you with an idea of a museum from that era. In particular, notice how the paintings are hung above one another in numerous rows, rather than in one row of paintings as in modern-day museums.

This painting was not received well by critics of Morse’s time, so he went back to work on his inventions and produced the telegraph!