Chevallier Field Glasses
name: label: associated person; user
content: McClellan, George B.
label: maker
content: Chevallier, Jean-Gabrielle-Augustin
notes: label: Description
content: This instrument is made of metal, japanned black. The objective lenses are achromatic and about 65 mm aperture. There is a center focus. The inscriptions—“L’Ing Chevallier / OPTICIEN” on one eye tube and “Place du Pont Neuf / PARIS” on the other—refer to J. G. A. Chevallier (1778-1848), an important optician in Paris whose shop was continued, by his son-in-law, well into the 1870s.
label: Description
content: The “B. McC.” inscription on the crosspiece at the eye end refers to George B. McClellan (1826-1885), a U.S. Military Academy graduate who served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. McClellan may have acquired these glasses in the 1850s when he was sent to the Crimea as an official observer of European armies. And he may have used them when serving as a General in the Union Army during the Civil War.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, París
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
label: See more items in
content: Military
label: See more items in
content: Optics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Hon. George B. McClellan
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AF.17460
label: accession number
content: 61384
label: catalog number
content: 17460
objectType: label: Object Name
content: binoculars
label: Object Name
content: field glasses
label: Object Type
content: binoculars
label: Other Terms
content: binoculars; Equipment, Individual; Army
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/4 in x 5 in x 2 1/2 in; 13.335 cm x 12.7 cm x 6.35 cm