The cartouche in the South Pacific reads “J. SCHEDLER’S / TERRESTRIAL / GLOBE / 6 inches diameter / Patented November 24 1868 / Prize Medal Paris Expos / E. STEIGER N.Y. / 1872.” The western border reads “Entered according to Act of Congress / in the Year 1869 by Jos. Schedler in the.” The eastern border reads “Clerks Office of the District Court/ of the Southern District of New York.” The explanations below the cartouche refer to steamship routes and telegraph lines.
While earlier globes tended to be printed in black on white and then colored by hand, Schedler’s were printed in color, probably by lithography. In this example, the boundaries and texts are black, the land masses are yellow and red, and the water is blue (largely faded to dark yellow). Broken black lines indicate lines of regular steam communication around the world, both from Europe and to Europe. There are also lines indicating the Atlantic telegraph cables of 1865 and 1866, as well as the French cable of 1869. The globe sits on a decorative cast-iron pedestal, with metal horizon circle and metal meridian circle.
Joseph Schedler (1813-1887) was a German immigrant who worked in New York and New Jersey, publishing books and globes. His globes won medals at several local and international exhibitions and were used in the public schools of several American cities.
Ref: Edward Weissenborn, “Improvement in the Construction of School Globes,” U.S. Patent 84,398 (Nov. 24, 1868).
Jos. Schedler, Schedler’s Illustrated Manual for the Use of the Terrestrial and Celestial Globes (New York and Jersey City: H. Schedler, 1889).
D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 125-127.
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