Chevallier Field Glasses
Chevallier Field Glasses
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Usage conditions apply
- Description
- This instrument is made of metal, japanned black. The objective lenses are achromatic and about 65 mm aperture. There is a center focus. The inscriptions—“L’Ing Chevallier / OPTICIEN” on one eye tube and “Place du Pont Neuf / PARIS” on the other—refer to J. G. A. Chevallier (1778-1848), an important optician in Paris whose shop was continued, by his son-in-law, well into the 1870s.
- The “B. McC.” inscription on the crosspiece at the eye end refers to George B. McClellan (1826-1885), a U.S. Military Academy graduate who served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. McClellan may have acquired these glasses in the 1850s when he was sent to the Crimea as an official observer of European armies. And he may have used them when serving as a General in the Union Army during the Civil War.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- binoculars
- field glasses
- Object Type
- binoculars
- Other Terms
- binoculars; Equipment, Individual; Army
- associated person; user
- McClellan, George B.
- maker
- Chevallier, Jean-Gabrielle-Augustin
- place made
- France: Île-de-France, París
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- glass (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 5 1/4 in x 5 in x 2 1/2 in; 13.335 cm x 12.7 cm x 6.35 cm
- ID Number
- AF.17460
- accession number
- 61384
- catalog number
- 17460
- Credit Line
- Hon. George B. McClellan
- See more items in
- Political and Military History: Armed Forces History, Military
- Military
- Optics
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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