Refracting Telescope
date: label: date made
content: late 19th century
name: label: maker
content: Lutz, Edouard
notes: label: Description
content: This is a refracting telescope on a pillar-and-tripod stand. The achromatic objective has an aperture of slightly more than 2 inches. The tube is 29 inches long and, with eyepieces, extends to 32½ inches. The “Ed LUTZ / Paris” inscription on the eyepiece is that of Édouard Lutz, an optical instrument maker who showed his wares at the international exhibitions held in Paris in 1878 and 1889.
label: Description
content: The federal Bureau of Education was formed in 1867 and charged with providing educational information to the states and territories. To this end it collected apparatus and text-books from around the world, and recommended that funds be provided for the organization of an educational museum and the exchange of educational “appliances.” It mounted an extensive display at the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans in 1885, but folded soon thereafter. This telescope was among its instruments. It came to the Smithsonian in 1910, a transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
label: Description
content: Ref: “Catalogue of the Educational Museum. U.S. Bureau of Education. Sketch of the Origin, Growth, and Objects of the Museum,” in accession file, NMAH.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Astronomy
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Department of the Interior
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.261258
label: catalog number
content: 261258
label: accession number
content: 51116
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telescope, refracting
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30 in x 2 1/2 in; 76.2 cm x 6.35 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19 in x 32 1/2 in x 10 1/2 in; 48.26 cm x 82.55 cm x 26.67 cm