Wilson 9-Inch Terrestrial Globe
Wilson 9-Inch Terrestrial Globe
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- Description
- The inscription in the Pacific reads “THE / AMERICAN NINE INCH / TERRESTRIAL GLOBE, / EXHIBITING / with the greatest possible Accuracy / POSITIONS of THE PRINCIPAL / PLACES OF THE EARTH / with New Discoveries & Political Alterations / down to the present / PERIOD; / 1819. / BY J. WILSON & Co. / Albany.” This globe shows no political boundaries within the United States, but does identify Maine and Florida. Longitude is shown from London and from Washington.
- The globe has a four-leg mahogany stand, 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. Wilson made his first globes in Vermont around 1810. Working with his sons he established an “artificial globe manufactory” in Albany in 1818.
- Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 135-137.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- globe
- date made
- 1819
- maker
- Wilson, James
- place made
- United States: New York, Albany
- associated place
- United States: Vermont, Perkinsville
- Physical Description
- mahogany (overall material)
- brass (overall material)
- Measurements
- average spatial: 23 cm; 9 1/16 in
- overall: 13 5/8 in x 12 in; 34.6075 cm x 30.48 cm
- ID Number
- PH.328410
- accession number
- 272473
- catalog number
- 328410
- subject
- Geography
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Measuring & Mapping
- Globes
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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