Wilson 13-inch Terrestrial Globe
date: label: date made
content: ca 1835
name: label: maker
content: Lancaster, Cyrus
notes: label: Description
content: “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.”
label: Description
content: This globe is supported on a 4-leg wooden base, and provided with a wooden horizon circle and a brass meridian.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” <i>Rittenhouse</i> 2 (1999): 135-137.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Albany
topic: label: Subject
content: Geography
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Globes
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.326970
label: accession number
content: 263804
label: catalog number
content: 326970
objectType: label: Object Name
content: globe, terrestrial
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 1/2 in x 18 in; 46.99 cm x 45.72 cm