Microscope
date: label: date made
content: 18th century
notes: label: Description
content: In this simple device, a brass column with lens holder and stage folds into a small wooden case and pops up when the lid is opened. Annette Braun, an accomplished American entomologist, and her sister, Emma Lucy Braun, a botanist, gave it to the Smithsonian in 1966. The paper attached to the inside of the lid—reading “Botanical microscope owned by Thomas Willym of Hereford, England, A.D. 1770”—probably refers to the bishop and prebendary of Hereford Cathedral. The date is obviously in error, as this form was first described by William Withering, an English botanist, in 1796.
label: Description
content: Ref: William Withering, <i>An Arrangement of British Plants</i> (Birmingham, 1796), vol. 1, plate XII. This “Represents the Botanical Microscope in its present improved state.”
label: Description
content: R. J. Rowbury, “William Withering of Birmingham and the Botanical Microscope,” <i>Microscopy</i> 34 (1981): 244-253.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
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content: Microscopes
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Annette F. Braun and Emma Lucy Braun
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.268965.01
label: catalog number
content: 268965.01
label: catalog number
content: M-11879
label: accession number
content: 268965
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microscope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 in x 2 7/16 in x 4 5/8 in; 2.54 cm x 6.19125 cm x 11.7475 cm