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Your search found 44 records from all Smithsonian Institution collections.
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- Description
- This simple and obviously homemade device may have been used by an itinerant teacher in New England in the early 19th century. The oval base is made of pine. It has a picture of the Sun painted near the middle, as well as indications of “Summer in the Northern Hemisphere,” “Summer in the Southern Hemisphere,” two positions of “Equal day & night,” and signs of the zodiac. The Earth is represented by a wooden ball that, with its post, moves in a groove around the Sun.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- early 19th century
- ID Number
- 1979.1078.01
- accession number
- 1979.1078
- catalog number
- 1979.1078.01
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- Description
- The cartouche reads “JOSLIN’S / Ten-Inch / CELESTIAL GLOBE / CONTAINING / all the Stars to the fifth Magnitude, inclusive. / From the Maps of the Stars, Published by the Society / for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. / Drawn and Engraved by W. B. Annin / BOSTON GILMAN JOSLIN.”
- This globe is supported on Joslin’s “full wood stand” with four short wooden legs, a wooden horizon circle and a brass meridian.
- Gilman Joslin (1804-about 1886) worked for Josiah Loring in Boston before issuing a globe under his own name in 1839. A mid-century account of Joslin’s manufactory noted that he employed three men and two women, and used a 3-horsepower steam engine. The women probably pasted the paper gores onto the globe balls.
- William B. Annin, the artist who drew and engraved the plates for this celestial globe, also worked for Loring.
- Ref: Gilman Joslin & Son, Joslin’s Terrestrial and Celestial Globes (Boston, 1885), p. 41.
- D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 100-103.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- mid 19th century
- maker
- Joslin, Gilman
- Annin, William B.
- ID Number
- 1980.0075.01
- catalog number
- 1980.0075.01
- accession number
- 1980.0075
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- Description
- The cartouche reads “H. SCHEDLER’S / CELESTIAL GLOBE / (12 inch diameter) / Exhibiting all the stars visible to / the naked eye up to the sixth magnitude / H. SCHEDLER. / JERSEY CITY, N.J. / Patented Nov. 1868 / Entered according to Act of Congress.” Broken black lines represent the constellation boundaries, while the constellation figures are in red.
- The globe has a three-legged wooden stand with metal braces, a metal horizon circle, and a metal meridian circle.
- Joseph Schedler 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 widely used in the public schools of several American cities. His son Herman continued the business from the late 1880s until after the turn of the century. The referenced patent on this globe was #84,398 issued to Edward Weissenborn. It pertained to an “Improvement in the Construction of School Globes.”
- This example was owned by Samuel Corby, an itinerant science lecturer who succeeded to the business begun by his father-in-law, Charles Came.
- Ref: 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1890
- maker
- Schedler, Joseph
- Schedler, Herman
- ID Number
- 1989.0743.438
- accession number
- 1989.0743
- catalog number
- 1989.0743.438
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- Description
- The Laing Co., of Detroit, Mi., manufactured planetariums based on the patent (#578,108) issued to Alexander Laing in 1897. Frank Trippensee (a Laing employee) and his brothers bought the firm in 1905, and turned the simple string and pulley instrument into one that used a chain drive and gears. That form—for which Frank Trippenssee received patents in the United States (#881,875) and Canada in 1908—proved remarkably successful and remains in production to this day.
- A brass tag on the horizontal arm of this example is marked: “THE TRIPPENSEE PLANETARIUM / PAT. U.S. MAR. 10, 08. CANADA JULY 21, 08 / THE TRIPPENSEE MFG CO. / DETROIT, MICH., U.S.A.” The base is brass as is the Sun. The Earth globe is covered with paper; the signature in the cartouche reads: “The / Trippensee / Mfg. Co. / Detroit, Mich.” Venus is a wooden ball painted black on one side and white on the other.
- Ref: Barry J. Sobel, “The Story of the Orrery and the Trippensee Company,” Rittenhouse 15 (2001): 83-92.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Trippensee Manufacturing Co.
- ID Number
- 1998.0224.01
- catalog number
- 1998.0224.01
- accession number
- 1998.0224
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- Description
- This orrery has 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1850-1900
- maker
- George Philip & Son
- ID Number
- 1985.0386.01
- accession number
- 1985.0386
- catalog number
- 1985.0386.01
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- Description
- 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.” There is one brass Sun that 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.
- date made
- ca 1820
- maker
- Willard, Jr., Aaron
- ID Number
- 1986.0466.01
- catalog number
- 86.466.1
- accession number
- 1986.0466
- catalog number
- 1986.0466.01
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- Description
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- mid 19th century
- maker
- Cornell, Silas
- Erastus Darrow & Brother
- ID Number
- 1986.0820.01
- catalog number
- 1986.0820.01
- accession number
- 1986.0820
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- Description
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1821
- maker
- Wilson, James
- ID Number
- 1987.0077.01
- catalog number
- 1987.0077.01
- accession number
- 1987.0077
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- Description
- This globe has white stars on a dark blue background, with the 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, a wooden horizon circle, a metal meridian circle, and a 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.”
- Ref: Weber Costello, Globes, Hyloplate Blackboards, Erasers—Wall Maps (Chicago Heights, 1922).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 20th century
- maker
- Weber Costello Company
- W. & A.K. Johnston Limited
- ID Number
- 1987.0196.02
- catalog number
- 1987.0196.02
- accession number
- 1987.0196
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- Description
- 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 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. The referenced patent on this globe was #84,398 issued to Edward Weissenborn, and described an “Improvement in the Construction of School Globes.”
- Ref: 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1872
- maker
- Schedler, Joseph
- Weissenborn, Edward
- ID Number
- 1987.0287.01
- catalog number
- 1987.0287.01
- accession number
- 1987.0287
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- Description
- The cartouche 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1890
- maker
- Nims & Knight
- Merriam & Moore
- ID Number
- 1987.0534.01
- catalog number
- 1987.0534.01
- accession number
- 1987.0534
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- Description
- This terrestrial globe is 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- mid 19th century
- maker
- Murdock, David C.
- ID Number
- 1987.0922.01
- catalog number
- 1987.0922.01
- accession number
- 1987.0922
-
- Description
- 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” and “J. Brainerd Sc. Cleveland, O.” The plane of the ecliptic is marked “Holbrook & Co. Berea, Ohio.”
- 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.
- date made
- 1840s
- associated person
- Holbrook, Josiah
- Holbrook, Alfred
- Holbrook, Dwight
- maker
- Holbrook & Co.
- ID Number
- 1988.0141.01
- accession number
- 1988.0141
- catalog number
- 1988.0141.01
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- Description
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- maker
- Fitz, Ellen Eliza
- Ginn & Heath
- ID Number
- 1989.0410.01
- catalog number
- 1989.0410.01
- accession number
- 1989.0410
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- Description
- 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.
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1870
- maker
- G. C. Wessmann
- inventor
- Williamson, Hugh
- ID Number
- 1989.0447.01
- catalog number
- 1989.0447.01
- accession number
- 1989.0447
-
- Description
- Small mechanical model showing the orbit of a comet around the sun. “The Comet of 1682, J. Rix, Fecit” inscription refers to John Rix, a London instrument maker who probably made this in anticipation of the return of Halley’s Comet in 1758.
- Ref: Martin Beech, “Cometaria and the Demonstration of Kepler’s 1st and 2nd Laws,” Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 82 (2005): 29-33.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- date made
- ca 1758
- maker
- Rix, John
- ID Number
- PH.204630
- accession number
- 36169
- catalog number
- 204630
-
- Description
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1790s
- maker
- W. & S. Jones
- ID Number
- PH.215538
- catalog number
- 215538
- accession number
- 40279
-
- Description
- This simple instrument has a heavy brass stand, and a horizontal arm that connects a brass Sun with the Earth and its Moon. A cartouche on the Earth reads “3 IN HEM GLOBE / EDUCATIONAL DEPOSITORY U.C.” Located in Toronto, the Educational Depository supplied books, charts, and other educational material to schools in Upper Canada.
- This tellurian was probably one of the many objects that the Education Department of Ontario sent to Philadelphia for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. It then went to the U.S. Bureau of Education, and that organization transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1910.
- Ref: Catalogue of School Material Exhibited by the Education Department of Canada at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, p. 39.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1876
- maker
- Educational Depository U.C.
- ID Number
- PH.261259
- accession number
- 51116
- catalog number
- 261259
-
- Description
- This is a simple instrument on a round wooden base. A horizontal arm connects a lamp representing the Sun with the Earth and its Moon. The Japanese text on the Earth has been translated as: “Made Dec. 1875 / Government Permitted / Translated by Ida / Issued by Tokyo / Satyo, Ltd. / Original from England Michel.”
- This astronomical device represents the intense effort to emulate western educational practices that Japanese leaders mounted following the Meiji restoration of 1868. It was probably one of the many objects that the Japanese Empire Department of Education sent to Philadelphia for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. It then went to the U.S. Bureau of Education, and that organization transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1910.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1876
- maker
- Satyo, Ltd.
- ID Number
- PH.261260
- accession number
- 51116
- catalog number
- 261260
-
- Description
- 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.
- Articles on Mars in (1900): 157-172.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1892
- associated person
- Niesten, Louis
- Schiaparelli, Giovanni
- Green, Nathaniel Everett
- maker
- J. Lebeque & Co.
- ID Number
- PH.311768
- catalog number
- 311768
- accession number
- 152769
