Columbian Museum (first) opens.

Originally Bowen’s Museum, it is operated by Daniel Bowen and located at today’s 100 Tremont Street. The first museum in Boston (the first in the U.S. opened in Charlestown, S.C. in 1773), it is an outgrowth of an exhibition of wax figures at the American Coffee House in 1791. Known as the Columbian beginning in 1801, the building is destroyed by fire on January 15, 1803, reopens at the corner of Milk Street and Oliver Street (second) in 1803, then moves to today’s 100 Tremont Street in 1806. The museum closes and the collection is sold to the New England Museum on January 1, 1825.