Camera Lucida
notes: label: Description
content: The U.S. Military Academy acquired this fairly large camera lucida in 1830. One inscription reads "Vincent et C. Chevalier / Quai de l'horloge N 69, à Paris." Another reads “C. CHEVALIER / 829.” Vincent Chevalier, a noted optical instrument maker in Paris, based the form on the design introduced in 1819 by Giovanni Battista Amici (1786-1863), professor of mathematics at the University of Modena. It has a heavy glass prism and two external optical elements: one has a clear lens and a blue glass filter; the other has two blue filters.
label: Description
content: Ref: John Hammond and Jill Austin, <i>The Camera Lucida in Art and Science</i> (1987), pp. 37-41.
label: Description
content: Vincent Chevalier, <i>Notice sur l’usage de la Chambre Claire (Camera Lucida)</i> (Paris, 1834).
label: Description
content: J. G. A. Chevallier, <i>Le Conservateur de la Vue</i> (Paris, 1815), pp. 305-309.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.315419
label: catalog number
content: 315419
label: accession number
content: 217544
objectType: label: Object Name
content: camera lucida
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 19/32 in x 3 3/4 in x 1 3/4 in; 26.924 cm x 9.525 cm x 4.445 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 3/4 in x 10 1/2 in x 3 7/8 in; 4.445 cm x 26.67 cm x 9.8425 cm