Orrery
date: label: date made
content: ca 1820
name: label: maker
content: Willard, Jr., Aaron
notes: label: Description
content: 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.” The one brass Sun can be used with either form. The planets are ivory. The plate of the tellurian mechanism is marked “A. WILLARD JR. BOSTON.”
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: Ref: William Ball Jr., “Another American Orrery,” <i>Antiques</i> 4 (October 1938): 184-185.
label: Description
content: “Willard’s Portable Orrery,” <i>The Weekly Recorder</i> (Jan. 17, 1821): 166, from <i>Boston Centinel</i>.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view (orrery)
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
topic: label: Subject
content: Astronomy
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Globes
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content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0466.01
label: catalog number
content: 86.466.1
label: accession number
content: 1986.0466
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0466.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: orrery
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ivory (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall (case): 25.3 cm x 37.5 cm x 35.6 cm; 9 31/32 in x 14 3/4 in x 14 1/32 in