Object Details
- Description
- Alvan Clark & Sons were the leading telescope opticians in the United States in the second half of the 19th century. The firm came to prominence in 1865 when their 18½-inch refractor, then the largest in the world, was installed in the Dearborn Observatory in Chicago. Other notable achievements included the 26-inch telescope installed in the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., in 1873; the 30-inch objective lens installed in the Imperial Russian Observatory at Pulkowa in 1883; the 36-inch objective lens installed in the Lick Observatory in California in 1887; and the 40-inch objective lens installed in the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, in 1897.
- The Clarks also made many smaller instruments for investigation, education, and recreation. This example is marked "Alvan Clark & Sons 1894 Cambridgeport, Mass." It has a nickel-plated brass tube assembly, an objective lens of 5 inches aperture, an equatorial mount, and a wooden tripod.
- Ref: Deborah Jean Warner and Robert B. Ariail, Alvan Clark & Sons. Artists in Optics (Washington, D.C., 1996).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Alvan Clark & Sons
- date made
- 1894
- Credit Line
- Clifford Anderson
- Measurements
- overall: 81 1/4 in x 34 1/2 in x 24 in; 206.375 cm x 87.63 cm x 60.96 cm
- Object Name
- telescope, refracting
