Telescope
date: label: date made
content: 1894
name: label: maker
content: Alvan Clark & Sons
notes: label: Description
content: Alvan Clark & Sons were the leading telescope opticians in the United States in the second half of the 19th century. The firm came to prominence in 1865 when their 18½-inch refractor, then the largest in the world, was installed in the Dearborn Observatory in Chicago. Other notable achievements included the 26-inch telescope installed in the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., in 1873; the 30-inch objective lens installed in the Imperial Russian Observatory at Pulkowa in 1883; the 36-inch objective lens installed in the Lick Observatory in California in 1887; and the 40-inch objective lens installed in the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, in 1897.
label: Description
content: The Clarks also made many smaller instruments for investigation, education, and recreation. This example is marked "Alvan Clark & Sons 1894 Cambridgeport, Mass." It has a nickel-plated brass tube assembly, an objective lens of 5 inches aperture, an equatorial mount, and a wooden tripod.
label: Description
content: Ref: Deborah Jean Warner and Robert B. Ariail, <i>Alvan Clark & Sons. Artists in Optics </i> (Washington, D.C., 1996).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridgeport
topic: label: Subject
content: Astronomy
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Clifford Anderson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.1017.01
label: accession number
content: 1979.1017
label: catalog number
content: 79.1017.1
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telescope, refracting
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 81 1/4 in x 34 1/2 in x 24 in; 206.375 cm x 87.63 cm x 60.96 cm