Copley 16-Inch Terrestrial Globe
date: label: date made
content: ca 1870
name: label: maker
content: Copley, Charles
label: maker
content: Joslin, Gilman
label: maker
content: H. B. Nims & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: There is no cartouche on this globe, but the texts on the horizon circle read: “IMPROVED GLOBE BOSTON” and “REFERENCES / Flamstead 46. Hevelius 24. Piazzi 180. LaCaille 1661. Nebulae. W. Herschell, J. Herschell, & J. Dunlop.” and “MANUFACTURED FOR H. B. NIMS & CO. / TROY N.Y.” and “THE EQUATION OF TIME” and “Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852 by Charles Copley, in / the Clerks office, of the District Court, of the Southern District, of New York” and “MAGNITUDES / First Magnitude. . . Ninth Nebulae” and “EXPLANATION. / Ancient Constellations . . . Modern . . .”
label: Description
content: This globe has a short 4-leg wooden base, a wooden horizon circle and a brass meridian. The astronomical information on the horizon circle suggests that this element could be used for celestial as well as terrestrial globes.
label: Description
content: Charles Copley (b. 1800) was a cartographer and engraver from England who became an American citizen in 1844 and lived in Brooklyn. He is best known for the pair of 16-inch globes that he introduced in 1852. Despite being extremely detailed, even to the point of obscurity, these globes won a gold medal at the 1852 fair of the American Institute in New York, and a first premium at the 1853 fair of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Copley’s globes would be revised from time to time, and marketed by other firms.
label: Description
content: This example of Copley’s terrestrial globe contains revisions that would have been of particular interest to Americans: Alaska (1867) is shown, but Lake Victoria (1858) and Mt. Kilimanjaro (1848) are not. Other additions include isothermal lines, the Atlantic Cable, and various deep sea soundings which, as advertised, “are not laid down on any other globe.”
label: Description
content: H. B. Nims & Co., the firm that marketed this example, was in business in Troy, N.Y., from 1869 to 1885 and again from 1890 to 1896, publishing and selling books and other school supplies. The globe was probably made by Gilman Joslin in Boston.
label: Description
content: Ref: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” <i>Rittenhouse</i> 2 (1999): 54-55, 63-64, and 88-89.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
label: associated place
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
topic: label: Subject
content: Geography
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Globes
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Mrs. Seward H. Rathbun
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.327974
label: accession number
content: 270024
label: catalog number
content: 327974
objectType: label: Object Name
content: globe
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: maple (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mahogany (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 40.6 cm; 15 31/32 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 23 1/4 in x 21 1/2 in; 59.055 cm x 54.61 cm