Betts 15-Inch Collapsible Terrestrial Globe
date: label: date made
content: late 19th century
name: label: maker
content: George Philip & Son
notes: label: Description
content: This is a cloth globe on a steel frame that expands and collapses like an umbrella. The cartouche in the North Pacific reads “BY THE QUEEN’S ROYAL LETTERS PATENT / BETTS’S / PORTABLE / TERRESTRIAL GLOBE / COMPILED FROM / THE LATEST AND BEST AUTHORITIES / LONDON: GEORGE PHILIP & SON, 32 FLEET STREET / LIVERPOOL: CAXTON BUILDINGS, AND 49 & 51 SOUTH CASTLE STREET.”
label: Description
content: The pine box that holds the collapsed globe is marked “BETTS’S PATENT PORTABLE GLOBE” and “London: George Philip & Son, 32, Fleet Street Liverpool: Caxton Buildings, & 49 & 51 South Castle Street.”
label: Description
content: John Betts (fl. 1844-1875) was a London publisher who specialized in inexpensive educational goods. He obtained a British patent (GB 1338) for "Collapsible Geographical Spheres" in 1856, and began advertising his patent portable globe soon thereafter. This example was produced by George Philip & Son, a publishing firm that was established in London in 1834, and that was still offering Betts’s globes in the 1920s.
label: Description
content: The inclusion of “Cape Colony” suggests that this example was made before the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. The inclusion of “Ind. Ter.” in the United States suggests that it was made before 1907 when Oklahoma became a state.
label: Description
content: Ref: John Betts, <i>A Companion to Betts’s Portable Globe and Diagrams</i> (about 1850).
label: Description
content: John Lanman, “Folding or Collapsible Terrestrial Globes,” <i>Der Globusfreund</i> 35-37 (1987): 39-44.
label: Description
content: Elly Dekker, <i>Globes at Greenwich</i> (Oxford, 1999), pp. 276-278, and 444-447.
label: Description
content: Yojiro Utsunomiya, “The Amount of Geographical Information on ‘Betts’s Portable Terrestrial Globe’” <i>Globe Studies</i> 53-56 (2007): 100-?
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
label: associated place
content: United States: Massachusetts, Amherst
topic: label: Subject
content: Geography
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Globes
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Amherst College
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.328739
label: accession number
content: 277678
label: catalog number
content: 328739
objectType: label: Object Name
content: globe
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cloth (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: pine (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 38 cm; 14 31/32 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in x 30 1/4 in x 3 in; 7.62 cm x 76.835 cm x 7.62 cm