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.

Patent model for Ralph Reeder, "Mariner's Time Compass," U.S. Patent #4,964 (1847). The inscription reads: "Ralph Reeder Patentee, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Description
Patent model for Ralph Reeder, "Mariner's Time Compass," U.S. Patent #4,964 (1847). The inscription reads: "Ralph Reeder Patentee, Cincinnati, Ohio. HENRY WARE, MAKER, CINCINNATI, O." Henry Ware (1810-1885) was a leading instrument maker in Cincinnati.
Scientific American reported that this instrument combines "three important uses." It shows "the local variation of the magnetic needle with unerring certainty," "the altitude of the sun, and thus enables the mariner readily to compute latitude." and "the true time" and thus "by the aid of the chronometer, shows the longitude." Despite journal's opinion that Reeder’s instrument "appears to be a practically useful invention," the Mariner’s Time-Compass was not a commercial success.
Ref: "Improved Nautical Instrument," Scientific American 12 (1856): 4.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840s
maker
Henry Ware
ID Number
PH.309345
catalog number
309345
accession number
89797
patent number
4,964
Made in the 1840s by the firm of Terry and Andrews, this clock represents an effort to incorporate imported springs, instead of falling weights, to drive the brass movement.
Description
Made in the 1840s by the firm of Terry and Andrews, this clock represents an effort to incorporate imported springs, instead of falling weights, to drive the brass movement. At the time of its manufacture, there was no spring-making industry in the United States.
Theodore Terry and Franklin Andrews formed a partnership in 1842 in Bristol, Conn., to make brass clock movements, which began to replace wooden ones after 1838. In 1850 they moved to Ansonia, Conn., to form a company with Anson Phelps who owned a brass mill there. Beginning as a subsidiary of Phelps’ firm, the Ansonia Clock Company went on to build millions of clocks until it went out of business in 1929.
This clock has a brass time-and-strike movement. Its case has a beehive-shaped iron front inlaid with mother of pearl. The white painted dial has Roman numerals. A label inside the case has directions for setting up and regulating the clock and the makers’ names.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1840s
maker
Terry & Andrews
ID Number
1984.0416.030
catalog number
1984.0416.030
accession number
1984.0416
This instrument is a specialized timekeeper designed for finding longitude at sea. Its form is that of the standardized 19th-century marine chronometer.
Description
This instrument is a specialized timekeeper designed for finding longitude at sea. Its form is that of the standardized 19th-century marine chronometer. Parkinson & Frodsham, a firm trading in high-quality chronometers, clocks and watches, was established in 1801 by William James Frodsham (1778-1850) and William Parkinson (d. about 1842). From 1801 to 1890, the firm’s business address was 4 Change Alley, and thereafter at other addresses until 1947.
Mechanism details:
Escapement: Earnshaw, spring detent
Duration: 56-hour
Power source: Spring drive with chain and fusee
Balance spring: Helical, blued steel, Earnshaw type
Inscription: "Parkinson & Frodsham." on backplate, "Change Alley / London" on barrel bridge
Bowl details:
Brass bowl
Brass gimbals
Bezel screwed and milled
Crystal convex and chamfered
Dial details:
Engraved and silvered brass
Indicates hours, minutes, seconds, winding level up and down
Hands: blued steel, early spade
Inscription: "Parkinson & Frodsham / Change Alley London. 2349"
Case details:
Box: solid wood, three-part, glazed center section
Brass corners, cartouche and key escutcheon
Roundel in bone
Inscriptions: none
References:
1. Gould, Rupert T. The Marine Chronometer. Essex: Holland Press, 1960.
2. Mercer, Tony. Chronometer Makers of the World. London: NAG Press, 1991.
3. Mercer, R. Vaudry. The Frodshams. The Story of a Family of Chronometer Makers. London: Antiquarian Horological Society monograph 21, 1981.
4. Whitney, Marvin,E. The Ship's Chronometer. Cincinnati: American Watchmakers Institute Press, 1985.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1840
maker
Parkinson & Frodsham
ID Number
ME.336641
catalog number
336641
accession number
1978.0161
catalog number
1978.0161.02
This early example of a transit theodolite was made for the U. S. Coast Survey in the 1840s.
Description
This early example of a transit theodolite was made for the U. S. Coast Survey in the 1840s. The "Thomas Jones, 4 Rupert St London" inscription refers to Thomas Jones (1775–1852), an instrument maker who worked for Jesse Ramsden, and who was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1835.The horizontal and vertical circles are silvered, and read by verniers and magnifiers to 30 seconds.
Ref: Gloria Clifton, Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550–1851 (London, 1995), p. 154.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840s
maker
Jones, Thomas
ID Number
PH.314634
accession number
208213
catalog number
314634
This is one of several Gambey instruments that the U. S. Coast Survey acquired in the mid-1840s. It is heavy, stable, and precise. The circle itself is silvered, finely graduated (probably to 5 minutes), and read by opposite verniers and magnifiers.
Description
This is one of several Gambey instruments that the U. S. Coast Survey acquired in the mid-1840s. It is heavy, stable, and precise. The circle itself is silvered, finely graduated (probably to 5 minutes), and read by opposite verniers and magnifiers. The signature reads "Gambey a Paris." The "U S C & G S NO 21" inscription must have been added after 1878, when the Coast Survey became the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840s
maker
Gambey, Henri Prudence
ID Number
PH.314631
accession number
208213
catalog number
314631
After Alabama became a state in 1819 and after the Indian Removal Act of 1830, white settlers and their African slaves arrived in the area in great numbers. This map was created under the auspices of the General Land Office, a federal agency that was formed in 1812.
Description
After Alabama became a state in 1819 and after the Indian Removal Act of 1830, white settlers and their African slaves arrived in the area in great numbers. This map was created under the auspices of the General Land Office, a federal agency that was formed in 1812. The agency took over functions begun under the Federal Land Ordinance of 1785.
This map shows Alabama divided into square townships 6 miles on each side (townships at the edges of the state tend to be smaller and irregular in shape). Some townships are designated A, B, C, D, or X. The scale seems to be 18 miles to the inch. The identified towns are Cahaba, Florence, Huntsville, Mardisville, Mobile, Montgomery, Sparta, St. Stephens, Tuscaloosa, and Wetumka. The Cherokee Cession is shown, as are the Choctaw Cession of 1830, the Chickasaw Cession of 1833, and the Creek Cession of 1832. One meridian runs through St. Stephens, a settlement along the Tombigbee River (here spelled Tombeckee) that served as the original capital of the Alabama Territory. Another meridian runs through Huntsville, the first incorporated town in the region. An east-west line at 31° north latitude divides Alabama from West Florida. Another east-west line divides the Northern and Southern surveyor’s districts.
The text at bottom reads “Exhibiting the situation of the Public Surveys, shewing what records of the same are on file in the General Land Office and the Surveyor General’s Office, the Townships, the field notes of which are yet to be transcribed for the General Land Office and recorded in this Office, also, what Townships the original field notes of which are not on file in either Office, having been destroyed by fire in December 1827, and which have to be retraced for the purpose of obtaining the Original Land Marks to be preserved on record in the General Land Office and This Office. Surveyor’s Office, Florence Alabama Jas H. Weakley Surveyor General of the Public Lands in Alabama.”
Ref: Jas. H. Weakley to James Whitcomb, Commissioner of the General Land Office, Nov. 16, 1840, in Public Documents Printed by Order of the Senate of the United States (Washington, D.C., 1841), vol. 3, pp. 134-135.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840
ID Number
PH.317489
catalog number
317489
accession number
230397
This surveyor's transit resembles those that William J. Young was making in the 1840s. The horizontal circle, located outside the compass box, is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes of arc, and read by two verniers to single minutes.
Description
This surveyor's transit resembles those that William J. Young was making in the 1840s. The horizontal circle, located outside the compass box, is silvered, graduated to 30 minutes of arc, and read by two verniers to single minutes. One level vial is on the upper plate at west, and another is on the southern standard. The tangent screw that moves the plates is at east. The telescope is not centered, and transits only with the objective end down.
The "A. Megarey NEW YORK" inscription is that of Alexander Megarey (1790-1850), a man who was born in Ireland and served an apprenticeship in London before moving to New York in the mid-1820s. In the 1840s he established a Navigation Warehouse, offering nautical charts and instruments, most of which were imported from England. He published a Nautical Almanac copied from that produced in London. He also operated a small shop for the manufacture and repair of surveying instruments.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840s
maker
Megarey, Alexander
ID Number
PH.326958A
accession number
264488
catalog number
326958A
Surveyor's vernier compass marked "Roach & Warner, N.Y." The variation arc on the north arm extends 20 degrees either way; the vernier is moved by a large screw on the south arm, and reads to 2 minutes. There is a level vial on each arm.
Description
Surveyor's vernier compass marked "Roach & Warner, N.Y." The variation arc on the north arm extends 20 degrees either way; the vernier is moved by a large screw on the south arm, and reads to 2 minutes. There is a level vial on each arm. John Roach and Henry Warner were in business together in New York for a few years around 1840, trading as Roach & Warner, and advertising surveying compasses and other instruments "of their own manufacture, warranted accurate and at lower prices than can be had at any other establishment."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840s
maker
Roach & Warner
ID Number
1986.1024.01
accession number
1986.1024
catalog number
1986.1024.01
This map runs from Cascarot Island in the north to Bloody Island opposite Saint Louis, to Dunstand Island just below Saint Louis, and to Cahoe Island in the south. Churchill’s Mill is identified, as is Pages Mills and the U.S.
Description
This map runs from Cascarot Island in the north to Bloody Island opposite Saint Louis, to Dunstand Island just below Saint Louis, and to Cahoe Island in the south. Churchill’s Mill is identified, as is Pages Mills and the U.S. Arsenal.
This map is based on a survey conducted by Robert E. Lee in 1837, and it shows his plans for the construction of a dam from the head of Bloody Island to the Illinois shore, a revetment (a surface for an embankment) to protect the western shore of the island, and a long dike extending south from the bottom of the island.
Ref: “Report of the Chief Topographical Engineer,” in Public Documents Printed by Order of the Senate of the United States vol. 1 (1843): 121-250, on 132.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1843
ID Number
PH.317507
catalog number
317507
accession number
230397
Joseph H. Brightly (about 1818–about 1858) of Philadelphia and New York City engraved this printing block after the drawing Kasanji, a native of Kasanji, by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 63 of Volume I of the U.S.
Description
Joseph H. Brightly (about 1818–about 1858) of Philadelphia and New York City engraved this printing block after the drawing Kasanji, a native of Kasanji, by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 63 of Volume I of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1844
ca 1844
publisher
Wilkes, Charles
printer
Sherman, Conger
author
Wilkes, Charles
original artist
Agate, A. T.
graphic artist
Brightly, Joseph H.
ID Number
1999.0145.038
accession number
1999.0145
catalog number
1999.0145.038
accession number
1999.0145
John Frederic Daniell, a young English natural philosopher, described this type of instrument in 1820. It consists of two glass balls, one partially filled with ether and the other covered with muslin, connected by a thin tube from which the air has been evacuated.
Description
John Frederic Daniell, a young English natural philosopher, described this type of instrument in 1820. It consists of two glass balls, one partially filled with ether and the other covered with muslin, connected by a thin tube from which the air has been evacuated. There is a thermometer in the tube above the ball with the ether, and another on the supporting stand. When a few drops of ether are poured on the muslin, their evaporation chills the covered ball; that in turn causes the ether vapor inside the instrument to condense, thereby cooling the other ball and causing dew to form on its surface. These instruments, Daniell said, were "accurately constructed, and packed in a box for the pocket, by Mr. Newman, Lisle-Street." The reference was to John Frederick Newman, a noted instrument maker in London.
The stand of this example is metal. The interior thermometer is mounted on a white ivory plate, the front is graduated every degree Fahrenheit from +15 to +95, and the back is marked "5 x 31 J. NEWMAN LONDON." The exterior thermometer is missing, and the dry bulb is broken. The U.S. Military Academy purchased it sometime between 1831 and 1844.
Ref: J. F. Daniell, "On a New Hygrometer, which Measures the Force and Weight of Aqueous Vapour in the Atmosphere, and the Corresponding Degree of Evaporation," Quarterly Journal of Science 8 (1820): 298-336.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1831-1844
maker
J. Newman
ID Number
PH.315733
catalog number
315733
accession number
217544
This vertical circle with a "Gambey à Paris" inscription is one of several instruments that the U. S. Coast Survey acquired from H. P. Gambey in Paris in the mid-1840s. It is heavy, stable, and precise.
Description
This vertical circle with a "Gambey à Paris" inscription is one of several instruments that the U. S. Coast Survey acquired from H. P. Gambey in Paris in the mid-1840s. It is heavy, stable, and precise. The circle itself is silvered, graduated to 5 minutes, and read by four verniers and magnifiers. The "U.S.C.&G.S. NO 37" inscription would have been added after 1878, when the Coast Survey became the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840s
maker
Gambey, Henri Prudence
ID Number
PH.307208
accession number
65983
catalog number
307208
In 1841, after seeing the Ertel universal instrument at the Depot of Charts and Instruments (soon to become the U. S.
Description
In 1841, after seeing the Ertel universal instrument at the Depot of Charts and Instruments (soon to become the U. S. Naval Observatory), Father James Curley determined to acquire a similar instrument for Georgetown College (now University), where he served as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. Father Curley's quest for funds was successful, and within a few years he was using "an Universal or Altitude and Azimuth Instrument, reading to 10 seconds, by Ertel & Son, of Munich," to orient the walls and determine the position of the new Georgetown College Observatory, and to determine the positions of several prominent sites in Washington, D.C. This is the instrument that Curley acquired for Georgetown College. The horizontal and vertical circles are silvered, graduated to 10 minutes, and read by verniers and magnifiers to single seconds. A second telescope is below the horizontal circle. The signature reads "Ertel & Sohn in München" and "Utzschneider u. Fraunhofer in München."
Ertel & Sohn made the mechanical parts of the instrument. Traugott Leberect Ertel (1778–1858) had joined the Mathematical–Mechanical Workshop in Munich around 1812 and become its sole proprietor around 1820. It was probably he who designed this instrument. In 1834, when Georg Ertel (1813–1863) was taken into partnership, the firm began trading as Ertel & Sohn. They exhibited a larger but still portable universal instrument at the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, and an "Instrument universel pour les observations astronomiques et terrestres" at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. The Utzschneider u. Fraunhofer signature refers to the Optical Institute that made the lenses for the instrument. Since Merz u. Mahler became proprietors of the Optical Instrument in 1840, the Georgetown instrument may have been one that had been in stock for some time.
Ref: Francis Heyden, "Astronomy at Georgetown College," Records of the Columbia Historical Society 53–56 (1953): 155–172.
Annals of the Georgetown Observatory, vol. 1 (1852), p. 14.
Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851, Reports by the Juries (London, 1852), pp. 250–251.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1840s
maker
Ertel & Sohn
ID Number
PH.330526
catalog number
330526
accession number
293489
Joseph H. Brightly (about 1818–about 1858) of Philadelphia and New York City engraved this printing block after a drawing of Patagonians by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 118 of Volume I of the U.S.
Description
Joseph H. Brightly (about 1818–about 1858) of Philadelphia and New York City engraved this printing block after a drawing of Patagonians by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 118 of Volume I of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1844
ca 1844
publisher
Wilkes, Charles
printer
Sherman, Conger
author
Wilkes, Charles
original artist
Agate, A. T.
graphic artist
Brightly, Joseph H.
Manning, J. H.
ID Number
1999.0145.055
accession number
1999.0145
catalog number
1999.0145.055
This engraved wood block was used to print an image in the publication "Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842," 1844, Volume 2, page 196. The image was drawn by A. T. Agate. It was engraved by R. H.
Description (Brief)
This engraved wood block was used to print an image in the publication "Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842," 1844, Volume 2, page 196. The image was drawn by A. T. Agate. It was engraved by R. H. Pease, and originally printed by C. Sherman of Philadelphia in 1844.
Description
Richard H. Pease (1813–1869) engraved this printing block after a drawing, Native of Australia, by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 196 of Volume II of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1844
ca 1844
publisher
Wilkes, Charles
graphic artist
Pease, Richard H.
original artist
Agate, A. T.
printer
Sherman, Conger
author
Wilkes, Charles
ID Number
1999.0145.113
accession number
1999.0145
catalog number
1999.0145.113
This is an American marine sandglass made during the 19th century, most likely after 1840. It takes approximately 34 seconds for sand to move from the top chamber, through the narrow neck, to the bottom.At sea, time was crucial to navigation.
Description
This is an American marine sandglass made during the 19th century, most likely after 1840. It takes approximately 34 seconds for sand to move from the top chamber, through the narrow neck, to the bottom.
At sea, time was crucial to navigation. Since the Middle Ages, mariners had used sandglasses that measured intervals of time to calculate ship speed, distance traveled, and periods of duty.
To determine ship speed, sailors used sandglasses to time the distance run against knots in the log line. The log was a piece of wood, weighted on one side to float upright and attached to a long rope. This log line had knots tied at regular intervals, traditionally seven fathoms (42 feet) or eight fathoms (48 feet), and wound off of a hand-held reel. With the log line cast astern, a seaman counted the number of knots played out in about half a minute to get the approximate speed in “knots,” or nautical miles per hour.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1840
ID Number
ME.327538
accession number
266230
catalog number
327538
This reflecting circle belonged to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and may have been purchased when Georgetown built an astronomical observatory in the early 1840s. It is of the "English" form designed by Edward Troughton in 1796.
Description
This reflecting circle belonged to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and may have been purchased when Georgetown built an astronomical observatory in the early 1840s. It is of the "English" form designed by Edward Troughton in 1796. Here the telescope, mirror, and filters are on one side of the circle, while the silver scale is on the other side. This scale is graduated to 20 minutes, and read by three verniers (one has a micrometer screw) to 20 seconds. The circle is supported on a heavy brass stand with a counterweight. The inscription reads "W. & S. Jones, 30 Holborn, London."
Ref: Abraham Rees, The Cyclopaedia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature (London, 1819), vol. 8, art. "Circle," and Plate III of "Astronomical Instruments."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1845
maker
W. & S. Jones
ID Number
PH.328403
catalog number
328403
accession number
272470
This sextant has a brass frame. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from -5° to +145° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier to 10 seconds of arc.
Description
This sextant has a brass frame. The silvered scale is graduated every 10 minutes from -5° to +145° and read by vernier with tangent screw and swinging magnifier to 10 seconds of arc. The "Spencer Browning & Rust LONDON" inscription on the arc refers to a firm that was in business from 1784 to 1840.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1800-1840
maker
Spencer Browning & Rust
ID Number
1981.0943.01
catalog number
1981.0943.01
accession number
1981.0943
This instrument is a specialized timekeeper for finding longitude at sea. It was made by the firm Robert Molyneux & Sons of London, England, between 1832 and 1845. The U.S.
Description
This instrument is a specialized timekeeper for finding longitude at sea. It was made by the firm Robert Molyneux & Sons of London, England, between 1832 and 1845. The U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1953.
To find longitude at sea, a chronometer would be set to the time of a place of known longitude, like Greenwich, England, the prime meridian. That time, carried to a remote location, could be compared to local time. Because one hour of difference in time equals 15 degrees difference in longitude, the difference in time between the chronometer and local time would yield local longitude. The instruments require careful handling to keep precise time. Although the original box for this instrument has not survived, most chronometers are fitted in a wooden box in a gimbal to remain level and compensate for the movement of a ship at sea.
Robert Molyneux was a maker of chronometers and precision clocks in England. He was trained by Thomas Earnshaw and went into business for himself in the 1820s. In 1832 he moved his London business from 44 Devonshire Street to 30 Southampton Row and partnered with his son Henry in 1835. In 1842 the chronometer firm Birchall & Appleton moved to that address.
Mechanism details:
Escapement: Earnshaw spring detent
Duration: 56-hour
Power source: Spring drive with chain and fuse
Balance spring: helical, blued steel
Dial details:
Engraved and silvered brass
Indicates hours, minutes, seconds, and winding level up and down
Inscription: “Molyneux & Sons / 30 Southampton Row, London / No 1436 / U.S. Army.”
Blued steel spade hands
Brass bowl with fittings to insert in gimbal
No box
No winding key
References:
1. Britten, Frederick James. Old Clocks and Watches & Their Makers. London: E. & N. Spon Limited, 1922.
2. Gould, Rupert T. The Marine Chronometer. London: Holland Press, 1960.
3. Mercer, Tony. Chronometer Makers of the World. Essex: N.A.G. Press, 1991.
4. Whitney, Marvin. The Ship’s Chronometer. Cincinnati: American Watchmakers Institute Press, 1985.
5. Wood, Christopher. “Robert Molyneux's Astronomical Clocks and Chronometers,” Antiquarian Horology 9 no. 4 (1975).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1835-1842
maker
Molyneaux & Sons
ID Number
ME.314266
catalog number
314266
accession number
198140
This engraved wood block was used to print an image in the publication "Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842," 1844, Volume 2, page 126. The image was drawn by T. R. Peale. It was engraved by J. J.
Description (Brief)
This engraved wood block was used to print an image in the publication "Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842," 1844, Volume 2, page 126. The image was drawn by T. R. Peale. It was engraved by J. J. Butler, and originally printed by C. Sherman of Philadelphia in 1844.
Description
Joline J. Butler (about 1815–1846, working in New York City between 1841 and 1845) engraved this printing block after a drawing, Ohwa Tree, from the Samoan Group islands, by Expedition Naturalist Titian Ramsey Peale. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 126 of Volume II of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1844
ca 1844
publisher
Wilkes, Charles
graphic artist
Butler, Joline J.
original artist
Peale, Titian Ramsay
printer
Sherman, Conger
author
Wilkes, Charles
ID Number
1999.0145.104
accession number
1999.0145
catalog number
1999.0145.104
This engraved wood block was used to print an image in the publication "Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842," 1844, Volume 3, page 111. The image was drawn by A. T. Agate. It was engraved by J.J.
Description (Brief)
This engraved wood block was used to print an image in the publication "Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, During the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842," 1844, Volume 3, page 111. The image was drawn by A. T. Agate. It was engraved by J.J. Butler, and originally printed by C. Sherman of Philadelphia in 1844.
Description
Joline J. Butler (about 1815–1846, working in New York City between 1841 and 1845) engraved this printing block after the drawing Cannibal Cooking-Pots from the Feejee (Fiji) group cultures by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 111 of Volume III of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1844
ca 1844
publisher
Wilkes, Charles
graphic artist
Butler, Joline J.
original artist
Agate, A. T.
printer
Sherman, Conger
author
Wilkes, Charles
ID Number
1999.0145.149
accession number
1999.0145
catalog number
1999.0145.149
accession number
1999.0145
This 30-inch transit was made by Troughton & Simms in London for the U. S. Coast Survey, probably in the late 1840s. Only the unusually short trunnions, telescope, small vertical circle, and micrometer eyepiece remain.
Description
This 30-inch transit was made by Troughton & Simms in London for the U. S. Coast Survey, probably in the late 1840s. Only the unusually short trunnions, telescope, small vertical circle, and micrometer eyepiece remain. The standards, graduated horizontal circle, and tripod base are missing.
Ref: C. A. Schott, "Determination of the Astronomical Azimuth of a Direction," United States Coast Survey Annual Report (1866), Appendix No. 11.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
late 1840s
maker
Troughton and Simms
ID Number
PH.316510
accession number
225703
catalog number
316510
This instrument is a specialized timekeeper designed for finding longitude at sea. Its form is that of the standardized 19th-century marine chronometer. It was transferred to the Smithsonian from the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Ships.
Description
This instrument is a specialized timekeeper designed for finding longitude at sea. Its form is that of the standardized 19th-century marine chronometer. It was transferred to the Smithsonian from the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Ships. The chronometer’s finisher, the firm of Charles Frodsham, traded in high-quality chronometers, clocks and watches. Frodsham (1810-71), was the son of William James Frodsham, co-founder of Parkinson & Frodsham. The younger Frodsham’s firm underwent many name and address changes, but continued in business from roughly 1837 until it became a subsidiary of Devon Instruments in 1977.
Mechanism details:
Escapement: Earnshaw, spring detent
Duration: 56-hour
Power source: Spring drive with chain and fusee
Balance spring: helical, blued steel
Key missing
Bowl details:
Brass bowl, fitted with a sprung cylindrical inner bowl as a dust cover (original work)
Brass fittings for gimbal, gimbal missing
Bezel screwed and milled
Crystal flat, small unpolished chamfer
Dial details:
Engraved and silvered brass
Indicates hours, minutes, seconds, winding level up and down
Hands: blued steel, fleur-de-lys
Inscription: "CHARLES FRODSHAM / 7 Pavement Finsbury Squr, / London No.1909”
References:
1. Gould, Rupert T. The Marine Chronometer. London: Holland Press, 1960.
2. Mercer, Tony. Chronometer Makers of the World. Essex: NAG Press, 1991.
3. Mercer, R. Vaudry. The Frodshams. The Story of a Family of Chronometer Makers. London: Antiquarian Horological Society monograph 21, 1981.
4. Whitney, Marvin E. The Ship's Chronometer. Cincinnati: American Watchmakers Institute Press, 1985.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1838-1843
1838 - 1843
maker
Charles Frodsham
ID Number
ME.314267
catalog number
314267
accession number
198140
Congress created the Wisconsin Territory in 1836, appropriated $3,000 for a survey of the boundary between Wisconsin and Michigan in 1838, and assigned this task to the secretary of war in 1840.
Description
Congress created the Wisconsin Territory in 1836, appropriated $3,000 for a survey of the boundary between Wisconsin and Michigan in 1838, and assigned this task to the secretary of war in 1840. The actual work was done by Thomas Jefferson Cram (1804-1883), a graduate of the United States Military Academy and a captain in the Corps of Topographical Engineers who was already working in the area. Using sextants and chronometers, Cram soon found that the geography of the region, and especially that of the Upper Peninsula, did not match the enabling legislation.
This is the map of the area that accompanied Cram’s report, which was sent to Congress in 1842. It extends from 41° to about 49° north latitude, and from below 84° to above 94° degrees longitude west from Greenwich. It was drawn by Joseph Dana Webster (1811-1876), a Dartmouth graduate and a member of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. It was engraved by William J. Stone, an engraver in Washington, D.C., who did a great deal of work for the federal government.
Ref: Thomas Jefferson Cram, “Report on the Survey of the Boundary between the State of Michigan and the Territory of Wiskonsin,” 27th Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Doc. 170, 1842.
Catherine Nicholson, “Finding the Stones,” Prologue 44 (2012).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1842
ID Number
PH.317491
accession number
230397
catalog number
317491

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.