Collections

Our Collection

Housed in the Adler's Webster Institute for the History of Astronomy, the Scientific Instrument Collection today contains over 2000 instruments and models from the 12th through the 20th centuries. Learn more about the Webster Institute staff on the Our Researchers page.

Learn more about the types of objects we have in our collection.

New Acquisitions

2011 Collections Acquisitions

The Adler Collections continue to grow through both purchase and donation. In 2011 most of the new acquisitions were telescopes, an area of special interest since the International Year of the Telescope in 2009.

A few highlights:

Two of the more unusual telescopes were purchased with the aid of funds from the Webster Club, an organization recently formed to support the Adler collections. These are both “marine telescopes.” These refractors are characterized by a reverse taper: the eyepiece end is larger than the objective end. The barrels are of wood, to avoid corrosion at sea. They usually lack draw tubes, probably for the same reason. One of these marine telescopes is A-435, which is signed “J. Gilbert”.

More than a dozen other telescopes from the 18th and 19th centuries also came to the Adler in 2011.

On a related theme, we received a do-it-yourself mirror-grinding kit from the 1950s as a donation—complete with a glass blank, a polishing disk, and a sequence of abrasive powders (A-423). The kit was packaged as originally sold by the Adler Planetarium!

An amusing work on paper acquired this year was this woodcut by Albrecht Durer, printed in 1535, showing an armillary sphere being blown upon from all directions by twelve personified winds (P-339).

The Adler Collection Travels

When other institutions request Adler collections objects on loan, the Adler Collections staff work with borrowing institutions, conservators, mount-makers, insurance companies, and art shippers to ensure that our objects are safely exhibited and transported. All Adler collections objects travel with Adler collections staff as courier.

Exhibition at Harvard Art Museum / Northwestern University

A major exhibition entitled "Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe," at the Harvard Art Museum from September to December 2011, includes two beautiful artifacts from the Adler Collection. One is a brass astrolabe dated 1540, by the famed Georgius Hartman of Nuremberg, Germany (M-22). Part of the Mensing Collection, this astrolabe has been at the Adler since 1930. Its rete differs from the typical Hartman astrolabe rete.

The other is a wooden diptych (two-tablet) sundial dated 1513 by Erhard Etzlaub, also of Nuremberg (DPW-22). This remarkable sundial was a gift to the Adler Planetarium from David P. Wheatland in 1983. The use of any portable sundial requires knowledge of one’s latitude. In place of the usual perfunctory “gazetteer” listing a few cities and their latitudes, this sundial features an elaborate map of Europe and North Africa, with latitude scales on the sides. The map is “upside down,” with South at the top. The Mediterranean Sea lies horizontally across the center, with the Iberian peninsula to the right. The names of many islands and cities are legible—how many can you puzzle out?

After closing at the Harvard Art Museum in December, 2011, “Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge...” will travel to Evanston, Illinois, for a three-month appearance at Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art.

Continuing exhibit at Art Institute of Chicago.

The Adler continues to have a long-term loan at the Art Institute of Chicago, on display in their Renaissance collector’s cabinet in gallery 205 “Medieval to Modern.”

Objects include a pair of globes by Demongenet, ca.1600 (G-14, G-15), a compendium from the workshop of Schissler, Augsburg, ca.1557 (T-5), a sundial signed by Ottheinrich von der Pfalz in 1547 (M-237), an astrolabe by Johannes Bos, 1597 (M-33A), and a Moghul astrolabe, Lahore, 1601 (N-69).

Continuing exhibition at Arab American National Museum

Since 2006, the Adler has sent objects on long-term loan to the Arab American National Museum of Dearborn, Michigan. An astrolabe (A-396) is displayed in their first floor permanent exhibit, which highlights historical contributions originating in the Arab world.

Significant Past Loans

In recent years artifacts from the Adler collection have traveled to major exhibitions across the country, including:

Minneapolis Institute of Art. The Adler’s 1551 celestial globe by Gerhard Mercator and an early seventeenth-century German astrolabe were on display in fall of 2009, in a temporary exhibition illuminating the intellectual and cultural contexts in which Vermeer created his masterpiece The Astronomer.

These objects illuminated the context in which Vermeer created his masterpiece, and were expected to have great appeal with the visitors to the MIA, who have little contact with early scientific instruments and the history of science.

Chicago’s Field Museum borrowed two objects for Maps: Finding Our Place in the World (November 2007-January 2008), a part of the citywide Festival of Maps.

The Jamestown Settlement Museum’s 2007 exhibition The World of 1607, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the colony, featured eleven Adler objects.

Search the Databases

You can search the following databases online:

Collections database — The Adler collections database contains basic information on about 2,400 scientific instruments and works on paper in the Adler collections.

The Adler Collections Database is temporarily unavailable. Please check back periodically or contact astrohistory@adlerplanetarium.org for assistance.

Early telescopes database — The dioptrice database covers the technical evolution of early telescopes, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

John Hershel database - Contemporaries of Sir John F. W. Herschel (1792-1871) recognized that he was among the most important figures in nineteenth-century science. In an obituary notice on Herschel, T. Romney Robinson lamented that "British science has sustained a loss greater than any which it has suffered since the death of Newton," a view supported by Herschel's interment next to Newton in Westminster Abbey. Herschel's reputation derived from the importance of his contributions to science and from the breadth of his learning. His most significant achievements were in astronomy, to which his father, Sir William Herschel, had made many notable contributions. Armed with the benefits of a famous last name and a Cambridge education, the younger Herschel enjoyed access to the international leadership of science, resulting in an extensive correspondence of 14,815 letters between Herschel and numerous luminaries, such as Charles Babbage, Charles Darwin, and Carl Gauss, as well as many others who didn't share that first name. The calendar of that correspondence, and brief summaries of each letter, are accessible now through the John Herschel Correspondence database compiled under the supervision of Michael Crowe, Ph.D.

Websters’ database of instrument makers’ signatures —  The signatures database contains about 15,000 signatures found on scientific instruments in museums and collections around the world. These objects are not at the Adler, and we have no additional information about them.

The Rare Book Collection in the OCLC's free WorldCat database contains over 3000 volumes, including over a dozen incunabula (books printed before 1500). The rare books cover a wide range of topics about the history of astronomy and scientific instruments. This collection includes all of the most important historical celestial atlases, as well as many other atlases. It also contains a large number of books on comets, early works on instruments, and astronomical and cosmological texts and tables. Other works include treatises on mathematics and its practical applications, works on optics, physics, astrology, geography, and navigation, and early encyclopedias and dictionaries. Books are catalogued in OCLC. You can find books listed in OCLC's free WorldCat database (worldcat.org). In libraries where OCLC's FirstSearch is available, you can limit your WorldCat search to the Library Code "AP$". Interlibrary loan is not available.

Modern Books and Periodicals in the OCLC's free WorldCat database. The Webster Institute at the Adler holds a collection of modern books and periodicals relating to historic scientific instruments and the history of astronomy. Books are catalogued in OCLC. You can find books listed in OCLC's free WorldCat database (worldcat.org). In libraries where OCLC's FirstSearch is available, you can limit your WorldCat search to the Library Code "AP$". Interlibrary loan is not available.

The Archival Collections in the Webster Institute are primarily related to the twentieth century. Learn more by viewing the finding aids below.

Have a question about making a research visit or scheduling a group tour? Further information and our Research Request Form can be found on our Contact Us page.