Mixed Set of Drawing Instruments
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
name: label: manufacturer
content: L. S. Starrett Company
notes: label: Description
content: This small set of drawing instruments includes a bow compass and a bow pen, both in the style shown by Theodore Alteneder of Philadelphia in an 1889 publication. Each of these is 3 1/4" long. Also in the set are tweezers and a center gauge. The gauge was made by the well-known firm of L.S. Starrett Company of Athol, Massachusetts. A mark on it reads: Starrett (/) Athol,Mass.U.S.A. Another mark reads: No.390 The tweezers are marked: HENCO.
label: Description
content: The instruments were used in the Pacific Mills Yarn Department in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and were formerly in the collections of the American Textile History Museum.
label: Description
content: Starrett, established in 1880,sold sets of drawing instruments for elementary use. However, no set matching this one was found in Starrett catalogs for the time period 1910-1974. Those that were offered did not have elaborate cases like that of this set, and also lacked the number 307, which is shown on the top of the lid.
label: Description
content: Compare 1978.2110.01, a set of instruments that includes a bow pen, a bow pencil, and bow dividers. It seems likely that the case was designed to hold such a set.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Theodore Alteneder, <I>Points about Drawing Instruments</I>, Philadelphia, 1889, pp. 14-16.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: manufacturer
content: United States: Massachusetts, Athol
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Drawing Instruments
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of American Textile History Museum
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2017.0234.04
label: catalog number
content: 2017.0234.04
label: accession number
content: 2017.0234
objectType: label: Object Name
content: drawing instruments, set of
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: leather, fabric (case material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (instruments, lock material)