Collections Search Results
Your search found 44 records from all Smithsonian Institution collections.
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- Description
- A bronze figure of Atlas supports an iron semicircular band. This, in turn, supports the brass armillary sphere with the usual meridian, equator, tropics, polar circles, ecliptic, and a horizon engraved with a zodiac calendar. The style of this instrument, as well as the position of the vernal point (around 9.75 March), suggests that it was made in Italy in the late 16th century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 16th century
- ID Number
- PH.319945
- catalog number
- 319945
- accession number
- 240011
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- Description
- The cartouche in the north Pacific reads “CARY’S / NEW / TERRESTRIAL GLOBE, / Drawn from the most recent / GEOGRAPHICAL WORKS / shewing the whole of the New Discoveries / with the / TRACKS of the PRINCIPAL NAVIGATORS / and every improvement in Geography / to the present Time. / LONDON: / London Published by G. & J. Cary, St James’s St Jan. 7th 1838”
- A water mark on the map gores reads “C WILMOT / 1837”
- The globe is held in a 4-legged wooden stand, with a wooden horizon circle and a brass meridian.
- John Cary was a globe maker in London who began in business in 1791. He introduced his new 12-inch terrestrial globe, and the celestial mate, in 1798. This example is dated 1838. The signature refers to John Cary’s sons, George and John Jr., who worked together from around 1820 to 1852.
- Ref: Herbert George Fordham, John Cary: Engraver, Map, Chart and Print-Seller and Globe-Maker, 1754 to 1835 (Cambridge, 1925)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1838
- ID Number
- PH.392869B
- catalog number
- 392869B
- accession number
- 214358
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- Description
- “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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1835
- associated person
- Wilson, James
- maker
- Lancaster, Cyrus
- ID Number
- PH.326969
- accession number
- 263804
- catalog number
- 326969
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- Description
- 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.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- late 19th century
- ID Number
- PH.321326
- catalog number
- 321326
- accession number
- 242903
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- Description
- “WILSON’S / NEW AMERICAN THIRTEEN INCH / TERRESTRIAL GLOBE / Exhibiting with the greatest possible Accuracy, / THE POSITIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL KNOWN / PLACES OF THE EARTH; / WITH the Tracks of various Circumnavigators together with / New Discoveries and Political Alterations down to / THE present PERIOD: 1835 / By CYRUS LANCASTER / 1835 / ALBANY, N.Y. / S. Wood & Sons Agents N. York.” Other inscriptions read: “D.W. Wilson dd.” and “Balch, Rawdon & Co. fet.” An allegorical image shows a woman (Columbia) holding dividers and a globe marked “AMERICA,” and an eagle holding a banner marked “E PLURIBUS UNUM.”
- This globe is supported on a 4-leg wooden base, and provided with 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, and established an “artificial globe manufactory” in Albany in 1818. His son, David W. Wilson, drew the maps for these later globes. The firm of Balch, Rawdon & Co. printed the maps. Cyrus Lancaster joined Wilson’s 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 terrestrial globe soon thereafter.
- Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1999): 135-137.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1835
- maker
- Lancaster, Cyrus
- ID Number
- PH.326970
- accession number
- 263804
- catalog number
- 326970
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- Description
- The cartouche reads “CARY’S / NEW / CELESTIAL GLOBE, / are correctly laid down upwards of 3500 stars / selected from the most accurate observations / and calculated for the year 1800. / With the extent of each constellation precisely defined / By Mr. GILPIN of the ROYAL SOCIETY. / Made and Sold by J. & W. CARY. / Strand London Jan. 1 1816.”
- The globe is held on a wooden pedestal with three curved legs. It has a wooden horizon circle and a brass meridian.
- John Cary was a globe maker in London who began in business in 1791. For this globe (and a few other things) he worked with his brother William. George Gilpin worked as an assistant at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich for a couple of years, and as the clerk of the Royal Society of London from 1785 until his death in 1810.
- Cary introduced his new 12-inch celestial globe and the terrestrial mate in 1798. This example is dated 1816.
- Ref: Herbert George Fordham, John Cary: Engraver, Map, Chart and Print-Seller and Globe-Maker, 1754 to 1835 (Cambridge, 1925)
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1816
- ID Number
- PH.392869A
- catalog number
- 392869A
- accession number
- 214358
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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
- 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
- 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
- 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
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- 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
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- Description
- This simple device made of brass, steel, and wood shows the relative positions of the Sun and five planets (two of which are missing). The “N. B. & D. Chamberlain Boston” inscription is that of Nathan B. Chamberlain (1809-1878) and his brother Daniel who worked in partnership during the period 1842-1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1840s
- maker
- N. B. & D. Chamberlain
- ID Number
- PH.321892
- accession number
- 245902
- catalog number
- 321892
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- Description
- This simple demonstration device is based on a patent (#88,187) issued in 1869 to Marshall Long, a teacher in New York. An example manufactured by the American School Apparatus Co., a firm that was in business in New York from about 1865 to 1875, won a first prize at the American Institute fair of 1869, and an honorable mention in 1870.
- This example sits on a circular walnut base. The Sun is missing. The Earth is marked “American School Apparatus Co. New York” and shows Alaska (1867), the pre-1867 boundary of the Dakota Territory, and such details as shipping routes and the “Submarine Cable” across the Atlantic.
- Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” Rittenhouse 2 (1988): 23 and 110.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1870
- maker
- American School Apparatus Co.
- Long, Marshall
- ID Number
- PH.326957
- accession number
- 264801
- catalog number
- 326957
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- Description
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1870
- maker
- Campbell, Stillman P.
- Tellurian Manufacturing Co.
- ID Number
- PH.334912
- accession number
- 315268
- catalog number
- 334912
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- Description
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- PH.322462
- accession number
- 250508
- catalog number
- 322462
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- Description
- This cardboard instrument looks like an armillary sphere but functions as an orrery. The Sun is at the center, and there are concentric rings representing the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
- The “à Paris Chez Delamarche Géog. / Rue du Foin Saint-Jacques / au College de Mtre Gervais” inscription on the ecliptic band refers to Charles François Delamarche (1740-1817), proprietor of a cartographic shop in the Latin quarter of Paris. His successors continued the business well into the 19th century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1800
- maker
- Delamarche, Charles Francois
- ID Number
- PH.322759
- accession number
- 250509
- catalog number
- 322759
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- Description
- This unmarked gizmo with wooden frame and brass gears may be a mechanism for an orrery. It was probably made in the United States.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- early 19th century
- ID Number
- PH.334756
- accession number
- 312089
- catalog number
- 334756
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- 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
- 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
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- 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
