Microscope
date: label: date made
content: around 1875
name: label: maker
content: Nachet et Fils
notes: label: Description
content: Small compound monocular microscope with push-pull focus, rectangular stage, sub-stage diaphragm, sub-stage mirror, circular base, and wooden box. The “NACHET ET FILS / rue St. Severin / Paris” inscription refers to an important French optical firm that was begun by Camille Sebastien Nachet in 1839; the firm became Nachet et Fils around mid-century, and moved to this address around 1862. A notice accompanying this instrument indicates that it was to be delivered in December 1875.
label: Description
content: This belonged to Charles Valentine Riley (1843-1895), a British-born entomologist and artist who arrived in the United States in 1860. Riley was given the French Legion of Honor 1884, for suggesting that French vines be grafted on American roots, to combat Phylloxera. Riley became the Smithsonian’s first curator of insects, in 1885.
label: Description
content: Ref: Nachet et Fils, <i>Catalogue Descriptive des Instruments de Micrographie</i> (Paris, 1863).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Département de Ville-de-Paris
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Biological Sciences
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transfer from Smithsonian Archives
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0142.01
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0142.01
label: accession number
content: 2015.0142
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microscope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/2 in x 10 3/4 in x 6 3/4 in; 11.43 cm x 27.305 cm x 17.145 cm