Terrestrial Globe
date: label: date made
content: ca 1880
name: label: maker
content: Fitz, Ellen Eliza
label: maker
content: Ginn & Heath
notes: label: Description
content: The cartouche in the North Pacific reads “FITZ GLOBE / Manufactured / BY / GINN & HEATH / BOSTON. / 1879.” The base is marked “FITZ GLOBE. GINN & HEATH, MANFS BOSTON. Patented Jan. 19, 1875.” There are red and blue isothermal lines, and indications of ocean currents.
label: Description
content: Ellen Eliza Fitz (b. 1836), an American governess working in St. John County, New Brunswick, invented a terrestrial globe mount that illustrated the path of the sun and the various durations of day, night, and twilight around the globe and throughout the year. She obtained a patent (#158,581) in 1875, published a <i>Handbook</i>, and showed an example at the Centennial Exhibition held at Philadelphia in 1876. In 1882, now living in Somerville, Mass., Fitz obtained another patent (#263,886) for mounting globes that indicated the positions of stars above any horizon at any time of the year.
label: Description
content: Ginn & Heath, an educational publishing house in Boston, was in business from 1876 to 1886.
label: Description
content: Ref: Ellen E. Fitz, <i>Handbook of the Terrestrial Globe; or, Guide to Fitz’s New Method of Mounting and Operating Globes</i> (Boston, 1876, and later).
label: Description
content: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” <i>Rittenhouse</i> 2 (1988): 62.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
label: associated place
content: United States: New York, Hastings-on-Hudson
topic: label: Subject
content: Geography
label: Subject
content: Women Inventors
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Globes
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1989.0410.01
label: catalog number
content: 1989.0410.01
label: accession number
content: 1989.0410
objectType: label: Object Name
content: globe
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 31.4 cm; 12 3/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 1/2 in x 13 in x 13 1/2 in; 41.91 cm x 33.02 cm x 34.29 cm