Wilson 13-inch Celestial Globe
- Description
- The signature reads “WILSON’S / NEW THIRTEEN INCH / CELESTIAL GLOBE / Containing the positions of nearly 7000 / Stars, Clusters, Nebulae & Carefully compil’d / & laid down from the latest & most approv’d / astronomical tables reduced to the present / time / By C. LANCASTER / 1835 / ALBANY ST N.Y.”
- This globe has a 4-leg wooden base, a wooden horizon circle and a brass meridian.
- James Wilson (1763-1855) was America’s first commercial globe maker. He was self-taught in geography and the techniques of engraving, but his globes were accurate, beautiful, and a commercial success. He made his first globes in Vermont around 1810 and established an “artificial globe manufactory” in Albany in 1818. Cyrus Lancaster joined the firm in 1826, took charge of the business after the death of Wilson’s sons in 1833, and introduced this version of the 13-inch celestial globe soon thereafter.
- Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 135-137.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1835
- associated person
- Wilson, James
- maker
- Lancaster, Cyrus
- place made
- United States: New York, Albany
- Measurements
- overall: 18 1/2 in x 18 in; 46.99 cm x 45.72 cm
- ID Number
- PH.326969
- accession number
- 263804
- catalog number
- 326969
- subject
- Astronomy
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Measuring & Mapping
- Globes
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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