Microscope
date: label: date made
content: 1873-1880
name: label: maker
content: Geneva Optical Company
label: maker
content: C. A. Spencer & Sons
notes: label: Description
content: After a fire destroyed his shop at Canastota, N.Y., Charles A. Spencer moved to Geneva, N.Y., and made microscopes for the Geneva Optical Company. This example inscribed “C. A. SPENCER & SONS / FOR GENEVA OPT. CO. / NO. 32” is a compound monocular with rack-and-pinion focus, circular rotating stage, inclination joint, sub-stage mirror on Lister limb, and tri-leg base. The lenses have been lost.
label: Description
content: Marshall Ewell, a Chicago lawyer and microscopist, informed the Smithsonian in 1909 that he had seen this microscope in the hands of Herbert R. Spencer. He also said that, after Spencer’s death, his widow had sent it to him with the request that, in time, he would forward it to the Smithsonian.
label: Description
content: Ref: Oscar W. Richards, “Charles A. Spencer and His Microscopes,” <i>Rittenhouse</i> 2 (May 1888): 70-81.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Geneva
label: associated place
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Microscopes
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Marshall Ewell
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-09774
label: accession number
content: 50311
label: catalog number
content: M-09774
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microscope
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 39 cm x 13.5 cm x 18 cm; 15 3/8 in x 5 5/16 in x 7 1/16 in