Measuring & Mapping

Where, how far, and how much? People have invented an astonishing array of devices to answer seemingly simple questions like these. Measuring and mapping objects in the Museum's collections include the instruments of the famous—Thomas Jefferson's thermometer and a pocket compass used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition across the American West. A timing device was part of the pioneering motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge in the late 1800s. Time measurement is represented in clocks from simple sundials to precise chronometers for mapping, surveying, and finding longitude. Everyday objects tell part of the story, too, from tape measures and electrical meters to more than 300 scales to measure food and drink. Maps of many kinds fill out the collections, from railroad surveys to star charts.

The inscription on this compass reads "Dietzgen Made in U.S.A." Dietzgen introduced the form in the 1930s, describing it as a Surveying and Timber Cruisers’ Compass of an "improved type as made by us for the U.S.
Description
The inscription on this compass reads "Dietzgen Made in U.S.A." Dietzgen introduced the form in the 1930s, describing it as a Surveying and Timber Cruisers’ Compass of an "improved type as made by us for the U.S. Government." It was designed to make "the entrance of moisture or dust practically impossible." The needle ring is graduated to degrees, and numbered in quadrants from N and S. A pinion with capstan head, located outside the box at W and marked "Declination," is used to offset the compass for magnetic variation. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency transferred this example to the Smithsonian in 2000.
Ref: Dietzgen, Catalogue (Chicago, 1938), p. 617.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Eugene Dietzgen Company
ID Number
2000.0257.15
accession number
2000.0257
catalog number
2000.0257.15
This plane compass inscribed "B. Rittenhouse" and "A. ELLICOTT" was owned by the noted American surveyor, Andrew Ellicott, and remained in the Ellicott family until a descendant donated it to the Smithsonian.
Description
This plane compass inscribed "B. Rittenhouse" and "A. ELLICOTT" was owned by the noted American surveyor, Andrew Ellicott, and remained in the Ellicott family until a descendant donated it to the Smithsonian. A remarkably similar compass, with the same inscriptions, is found at Fort Necessity National Battleground. For his survey of the southern boundary of the United States in the late 1790s, Ellicott used a Benjamin Rittenhouse vernier compass.
Ref: The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, Late Commissioner on Behalf of the United States During Part of the Year 1796, the Years 1797, 1798, 1799 and Part of the Year 1800 For Determining the Boundary Between the United States and the Possessions of His Catholic Majesty in America (Philadelphia, 1803).
Location
Currently not on view
owner
Ellicott, Andrew
Douglas, Henry B.
maker
Rittenhouse, Benjamin
ID Number
PH.310815.01
accession number
128427
catalog number
310815.01
310815
Dry-card compass with a turned wood bowl gimbal mounted in a wood box, with a "R. S. BURROUGH." PROVIDENCE." inscription. It dates from around 1817 when Robert S.
Description
Dry-card compass with a turned wood bowl gimbal mounted in a wood box, with a "R. S. BURROUGH." PROVIDENCE." inscription. It dates from around 1817 when Robert S. Burrough was in Providence, Rhode Island, selling and repairing nautical and other mathematical instruments.
Ref: Burrough advertisement in the New American Practical Navigator (1817).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1817
maker
Burrough, Robert S.
ID Number
1992.0202.01
catalog number
1992.0202.01
accession number
1992.0202

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