Like many instruments of the sort made in London, this American one could be used as an orrery (Sun and planets out to Saturn) or a tellurian (Sun, Earth and Moon), with the mechanisms moved by a crank with an ivory handle. Four elegant brass legs support a mahogany horizon circle. The printed paper label covering this circle is marked “MADE-BY / Aaron Willard Jr. / BOSTON.” The one brass Sun can be used with either form. The planets are ivory. The plate of the tellurian mechanism is marked “A. WILLARD JR. BOSTON.”
Aaron Willard Jr. (1783-1864) was a productive and prosperous clockmaker in Boston who apprenticed with his father and took over the business in 1823. He probably made this instrument in collaboration with John Locke (1792-1856), a graduate of the Yale Medical School who settled in Cincinnati. Locke also established a school for young ladies, developed an electro-chronograph for the U.S. Naval Observatory, and made important contributions to American geology.
Ref: William Ball Jr., “Another American Orrery,” Antiques 4 (October 1938): 184-185.
“Willard’s Portable Orrery,” The Weekly Recorder (Jan. 17, 1821): 166, from Boston Centinel.
The cartouche in the North Pacific reads “FITZ GLOBE / Manufactured / BY / GINN & HEATH / BOSTON. / 1879.” The base is marked “FITZ GLOBE. GINN & HEATH, MANFS BOSTON. Patented Jan. 19, 1875.” There are red and blue isothermal lines, and indications of ocean currents.
Ellen Eliza Fitz (b. 1836), an American governess working in St. John County, New Brunswick, invented a terrestrial globe mount that illustrated the path of the sun and the various durations of day, night, and twilight around the globe and throughout the year. She obtained a patent (#158,581) in 1875, published a Handbook, and showed an example at the Centennial Exhibition held at Philadelphia in 1876. In 1882, now living in Somerville, Mass., Fitz obtained another patent (#263,886) for mounting globes that indicated the positions of stars above any horizon at any time of the year.
Ginn & Heath, an educational publishing house in Boston, was in business from 1876 to 1886.
Ref: Ellen E. Fitz, Handbook of the Terrestrial Globe; or, Guide to Fitz’s New Method of Mounting and Operating Globes (Boston, 1876, and later).
D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 62.
The cartouche reads “A NEW / AMERICAN / CELESTIAL GLOBE / Containing the Positions of nearly / 5000 / Stars, Clusters, Nebulae, Planetary / Nebulae &C. Carefully computed & laid down / from the latest observations and dis- / coveries by Dr Maskelyne, Dr Herschel / The Revd Mr Wollaston &c. &c. / by James Wilson 1821.”
This globe is supported on a 4-leg wooden base, and has a wooden horizon circle and a brass meridian.
James Wilson (1763-1855) was America’s first commercial globe maker. Although he was self-taught in geography and the techniques of engraving, 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.
The cartouche, pasted onto the globe in the North Pacific, reads “SILAS CORNELL’S / PATENT/ Terrestrial Globe / Made and sold by / S. CORNELL AND / E. DARROW & BROTHER / ROCHESTER / N.Y. / G. JOSLIN BOSTON.”
Silas Cornell (1789-1864) was a Quaker from Long Island who studied at the New York Academy of Fine Arts, and then worked as a surveyor, civil engineer and educator. He began producing globes in the early 1840s. In 1845 he received a patent (#4,098) for a globe mount designed to illustrate “several geographical and astronomical phenomena connected with the motions of the earth.” Globes with this patented mount were advertised as Cornell’s “Improved Terrestrial Globe,” and available in two sizes. The 5-inch sold for $3.50. The 9-inch sold for $10.
The most unusual feature of this example is a set of irregular contour lines indicating the northern and southern limits of wood, grain, the vine, and bananas. These lines are essentially isothermals, and represent the first use of such geophysical information on an American globe.
The globe has a three-footed metal bases and a metal meridian circle.
This example is not dated, but internal evidence suggests that the map gores were engraved at the time Cornell obtained his patent. As Texas is shown as a republic, the engraving must have been begun before Texas was admitted as a state in the Union (1845). The northwest corner of the United States extends as far north as 54° 40’, indicating that the engraving predates the Oregon Treaty (1846) which established the northwest boundary of the U.S. at 49°. Mexico extends up into what is now Colorado, as it did before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). The map is engraved in black on white, and hand colored. In this example, the colors were added after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) but before the Gadsden Purchase (1853). The cartouche dates from the period 1855-1866 when Erasmus Darrow & Brother were in business as booksellers and publishers, and advertising as “Manufacturers of Cornell’s Improved Globes.”
Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 55-57.
Globe with white stars on a dark blue background, and constellation figures faintly outlined in gold. A label in the southern hemisphere reads: “CELESTIAL / GLOBE / Manufactured by / Weber Costello Co. / Chicago Heights, Ill.” There is a three-footed metal base, wooden horizon circle, metal meridian circle, and metal yoke.
C. F. Weber & Co. purchased the globe business of A. H. Andrews & Co. in 1896. The firm became Weber Costello Frick Co. in 1902 and Weber Costello in 1909. The firm boasted in 1922: “The manufacture of globes requires skilled, experienced workmen, and the most accurate machinery. We have for this work the largest and best appointed establishment in the world. We have had forty-one years’ experience in globe manufacture. There are no globes made anywhere, by anyone, that equal our product.” The firm went to say that their globe maps were “made by the greatest map makers in the world, G. W. Bacon & Co., London, England, and W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburg, Scotland.”
In this curious instrument, a terrestrial globe sits inside a glass sphere on which the stars and constellations have been painted. This, in turn, is mounted on a decorative cast-zinc base. The cartouche on the terrestrial globe reads: “IMPROVEMENT IN / CELESTIAL & TERRESTRIAL / GLOBES / PATENTED BY H. WILLIAMSON / NEW YORK. DEC. 3, 1867 / Sold by HARPER & BROTHERS / Franklin Square, N.Y.” The words “PATENTED / DEC. 3, 1867 / No 85” and “G. C. WESSMANN / NEW YORK / MAKER” appear on a brass band that circles the terrestrial globe. New, this item cost $75.
Hugh Williamson of New York City obtained a patent (#71,830) for a concentric globe in 1867, and a second prize at the American Institute fair of 1869.
Ref: Hugh Williamson, A Manual of Problems of the Globes, Designed as an Accompaniment to Williamson’s Patent Concentric Celestial and Terrestrial Globes (New York, 1868).
D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 134-135.
Orrery with a mahogany base and and three short legs. The top is painted light blue. The inscription on a brass disc in the center reads “GEORGE PHILIP & SON LTD 32 FLEET ST LONDON E.C. MADE IN ENGLAND.” The Sun and the planets are represented by painted wooden spheres. Earth is covered by paper map gores. Mercury, Venus and Earth, are driven by an open-geared mechanism mounted on top of the center spindle column. The five distant planets have support arms from this center spindle. The drive mechanism is below the table. All moons have wire supports and are moved by hand.
George Philip (1800-1882) was a cartographer and mapmaker who began in business in Liverpool in 1834. His son George (1823-1902) joined the firm in 1848. George Philip & Son, Ltd., later moved to London.
This terrestrial globe consists of a solid wooden sphere atop a simple brass base with 3 cabriole legs. The curious brass structure mounted on the globe has not been identified. The cartouche in the north Pacific reads: “MADE / BY / D.C. MURDOCK / WEST BOYLSTON / MASS.”
There are very few geographical names or boundaries on this globe. But “Oasis at Taudeny” is shown in West Africa, as is the “Great Desert.” Australia (a name adopted by the United Kingdom in 1824) is here labeled “NEW HOLLAND.”
David C. Murdock (1805-1880) made inexpensive school apparatus from the 1830s until his small factory was destroyed by fire in 1868.
Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 116-117.
The cartouche on this globe reads “THE FRANKLIN / TERRESTRIAL / 10 INCHES IN DIAMETER CONTAINING ALL THE / Geographical Divisions / & POLITICAL BOUNDARIES / to the present date / carefully compiled from the best Authorities / NIMS & KNIGHT / TROY, N.Y.”
The first Franklin terrestrial globe was issued in the mid-1850s by Merriam & Moore, booksellers in Troy, N.Y. That firm and its successors would issue several new editions over the course of the next half century. This example carries the signature of Nims & Knight, as the firm was known from 1886 to 1889, but it shows some geographical information from a year or two later. This includes such states as North and South Dakota (1889), Wyoming and Idaho (1890), and the panhandle (1890) of the “Indian Territor” later known as Oklahoma.
The globe is mounted on an inclined axis on a simple pillar stand. The circular cast iron base is covered with lithographed tinplate.
Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 63-64.
Josiah Holbrook (1788-1854) was an educational reformer, an advocate of the method known as “object teaching,” and an entrepreneur who began selling simple and inexpensive educational apparatus in the 1830s. Holbrook’s sons, Alfred and Dwight, established a “Lyceum Village” at Berea, Ohio, in the 1840s, and manufactured school apparatus.
Holbrook’s tellurian with pulley adjustment was intended “to illustrate all the phenomena resulting from the relations of the Earth, Moon and Sun to each other.” In this example the Sun is a 5-inch wooden sphere painted yellow. The Earth is a 3-inch wooden sphere covered with an engraved paper map. The horizon is marked “HOLBROOK & CO BEREA, OHIO.” The plane of the ecliptic is marked “Holbrook & Co. Berea, Ohio.” The "J. Brainerd Sc. Cleveland, O.” inscription refers to Jehu Brainerd (1807-1878), a microscopist, a homeopathic physician, and an examiner in the Patent Office in Washington, D.C.
Ref: Text-Book to Accompany Holbrook’s Scientific Apparatus (Hartford, 1853), pp. 40-54.
D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 94-95.
This unsigned instrument closely resembles the orrery that Edward S. Ritchie offered in 1860. It is a simple crank-operated model showing the relative positions of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars and its two moons, Jupiter (missing) and its moons, Saturn with rings and several moons, and Uranus. The stand is wood. The arms holding the planets are brass.
Ref: Ritchie’s Illustrated Catalogue of Philosophical Instruments, and School Apparatus (Boston, 1860), p. 75.
“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.
This crank-operated device shows the orbital motions of Mercury, Venus, and the Earth around the Sun, and the Moon around Earth. The circular wooded base rests on three short feet, and is covered with an ornately engraved paper plate. One cherub on this plate holds a sign that reads “Designed for the / NEW PORTABLE / ORRERIES / by W. Jones.” Another cherub holds a sign that reads “and made and sold by / W. & S. JONES / 135 Holborn / London.” There is also “A TABLE of the principal AFFECTIONS of the / PLANETS / Jan’y 1st 1794 / Published as the Act directs by / W. & S. Jones”
William S. Disbrow, a physician in Newark, N.J., who attained fame as a collector of art, books and scientific specimens, gave this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1902.
William Jones (1763-1831) and his brother Samuel (d. 1859) made and sold mathematical, optical and philosophical instruments. They began in business at 135 Holborn in 1792, and moved to 30 Holborn in 1800.
Ref: William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery on a Simple Construction (London, 1784).
Henry C. King and John R. Millburn, Geared to the Stars. The Evolution of Planetariums, Orreries, and Astronomical Clocks (Toronto, 1978), pp. 207-210.
This celestial globe is supported on a wooden tri-leg pedestal, surrounded by a wooden horizon circle, and is equipped with a brass meridian and a small brass circle around the north pole. It (and its terrestrial mate) belonged to the Anglo-American chemist, Joseph Priestley.
The text in the cartouche in the southern hemisphere reads: “To the Rev. / NEVIL MASKELYNE, D.D. F.R.S. / Astronomer Royal / The New British Celestial Globe / containing the Positions of nearly 6000 Stars, Clusters, nebulae, Planetary / Nebulae &c. Correctly computed & laid down to the year 1800; from the latest observati / ons and discoveries by Dr Maskelyne, Dr Herschel, The Revd Mr Wollaston &c. &c. / Is respectfully Dedicated / by his most obedient hbl Servants / W. & T. M. Bardin”
William Bardin (fl. 1730-1798) was a London artisan who began making globes around 1780. Around 1790, now in partnership with his son, Thomas Marriott Bardin (1768-1819), he began trading as W. & T. M. Bardin. The 18-inch globes were their most ambitious. They were introduced in 1798, and remained in production, by successor firms, for a half century.
Ref: John Millburn and Tör Rossaak, “The Bardin Family, Globe Makers in London” Der Globusfreund (1992).
Elly Dekker, Globes at Greenwich (Oxford, 1999), pp. 260-270.
Here an astronomical mechanism on an octagonal wooden base is moved by a clock within. One part of the mechanism is an orrery with wire arms holding simple planets (some of which are missing) with a curious assortment of moons. Another part is a tellurian showing the relative positions of the Earth and Moon. There is a clock face on one side of the base. The only readable inscription is “Paris.”
13-inch globe supported on a 4-leg wooden base, and provided with a wooden horizon circle and a brass meridian. The inscription reads: “A NEW / AMERICAN / CELESTIAL GLOBE / Containing the positions of nearly 5000 / Stars, Clusters, Nebulae & Carefully compil’d / & laid down from the latest & most approv’d / astronomical tables reduced to the present / time / By J. WILSON & SONS, / 1826. / ALBANY ST N.Y.”
James Wilson (1763-1855) was America’s first commercial globe maker. Although he was self-taught in geography and the techniques of engraving, 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.
Stillman P. Campbell was an itinerant doctor who invented several quite unrelated devices. While living in Buffalo in 1867, he obtained a patent (#66,791) for a hand-cranked orrery in which the Earth with its moon moved in an elliptical orbit around a gas-jet Sun. The Tellurian Manufacturing Co. of Hartford obtained the rights for this patent and showed “the improved Campbell tellurian” at the American Institute fair of 1870. This tellurian was available in two sizes: 18 inches diameter with a 3-inch globe, and 36 inches diameter with a 6-inch globe.
This example is of the larger size. Its octagonal wooden box is marked “TELLURION / Patented July 16th 1867 / Dr. S. P. CAMPBELL”
Ref: An Epitome of Astronomy, Arranged to Assist in the Manipulation and Understanding of Campbell’s Tellurian (Hartford, 1870).
D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 52.
This clockwork mechanism shows Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon orbiting the Sun. There is a dial for the Moon’s Age and another for Solar Time. The “JAMES GILES, Master of GRAVESEND / FREE-SCHOOL, Invt et Fecit.” inscription probably refers to the James Giles Jr. who built a curious sundial at Milton Church, and wrote a text on English grammar.
Ref: Henry C. King and John R. Millburn, Geared to the Stars. The Evolution of Planetariums, Orreries, and Astronomical Clocks (Toronto, 1978), pp. 166-167.
Robert Pockock, The History of the Incorporated Town and Parishes of Gravesend and Milton (Gravesend, 1797), p. 117.
The cartouche reads: “GLOBE DE MARS / dressé / PAR L NIESTEN / d’après les observations faites / A BRUXELLES & A Milan / NOMENCLATURE SCHIAPARELLI / NOMENCLATURE GREEN / J. Lebèque & Co Bruxelles.”
Since the several planets orbit the Sun at different speeds, Mars is better seen at some times than at others. The opposition of 1877, when the Earth was between Mars and the Sun, attracted widespread attention. This small globe is one result of that attention. It was published by J. Lebèque & Co., in Brussels, Belgium, around 1892. The map was drawn by Louis Niesten, a Belgian astronomer. It incorporates the ideas of Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer who saw dark lines on the surface of the Red Planet and referred to them as “canali” (channels). It also incorporates the ideas of Nathaniel Everett Green, an English artist and astronomer who was famous for his drawings of the planets, and who believed the lines to be an optical illusion.
This globe may have been acquired for the Smithsonian by Samuel Pierpont Langley, the astrophysicist who served as the third Secretary of the Institution, and who established the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In 1900, perhaps in reaction to Nicola Tesla, a quixotic inventor who announced plans to communicate with Martians, the Smithsonian published a lengthy account of Mars and the Martian controversy.
Ref: “Aréographie. Description physique de la planète Mars,” Ciel et Terre 13 (1892): 195-211.