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 . Have a question about making a research visit or scheduling a group tour? Visit our Contact Us page to learn more.

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

New Acquisitions

2009 Collections Acquisitions

The Adler Collections continue to grow, with active collecting through purchase and donation. Recently the Adler acquired twelve new collections items: eight scientific instruments and four works on paper.

Scientific instruments include:

• 3-inch Gregorian reflecting telescope attributed to Hauksbee, ca. 1710-30, with later stand, ca. 1765. This brass telescope, with a leather covering, is the second-oldest reflector in the world (A-413);
• 4-inch Gregorian reflecting telescope made by George Adams Sr., ca.1760, with original brass table stand (A-414);
• Portable refracting telescope with leather case, by Dudley Adams, early 19th century (A-415);
• Split lens micrometer by Thomas Jones, ca. 1820 (A-416); and
• Pocket-size three draw telescope by Jesse Ramsden, ca. 1780. For additional details, see “Telescope from Space Shuttle,” below.

Mrs. Marjorie Webster contributed three navigational instruments to the Adler collections in 2009:

• Octant by Benjamin Martin, ca. 1750 (W-341);
• Octant by Will Christopher and D. Scarliff of London, 1759 (W-342); and
• Cross-staff with 3 sights made by “I. Gilbert” of London, undated. This instrument is particularly significant and rare in having its sights survive (W-343).

New Works on Paper include:

• Hand-colored copper-plate engraving, “New & Correct Globes according to the latest Observation...” by Richard Cushee, London, ca. 1750. It advertises Cushee’s shop, which he shared with Thomas Martin, a fellow instrument maker (P-312);
• Copperplate engraving, with original hand- coloring, entitled “Morning Dress.” Published in the Ackermann’s Repository, London, September 1814. It illustrates a lady holding a telescope (P-313);
• Tinted lithograph, with original hand- coloring and highlighted with gum Arabic, “Son of the Pilot,” from Les enfants Peints D’apres nature, by L. Janet, Paris, ca. 1850, after a drawing by Louis Lassalle of a boy holding a telescope (P-314); and
• Leaf from the Nuremberg Chronicle published by Hartmann Schedel, 1493, addressing the Antichrist, from the Latin edition (P-315).

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.

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).

This long-term loan continues through 2011.

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

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

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.