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Globe, American, Holbrook, Terrestrial World, 3-Inch Hemispheric, Pocket Globe, Connecticut, c. 1850s (Sold)

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Holbrook Apparatus Mfg. Co.
3-inch Terrestrial Hemispheric Pocket Globe
Wethersfield, Connecticut: c. 1850s
Paper gores on wooden core, opening by hinges at center
3 inches, diameter

A small hand-held terrestrial miniature globe for student use that is cleverly designed to open in the middle to reveal a flat double hemisphere map. The globe has an embedded hinge that opens the equal globe halves to reveal a western hemisphere map on the left side and an eastern hemisphere map on the right side The interior and exterior cartography is simple, with oceans, continents, and only a few major rivers. Oceans and continents are cream colored, continents are surrounded by thin hatch marks in the oceans and highlighted with thick outlines in deep shades of red, green, blue, and yellow. The Equator, Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are present on both the outer and inner sections. The poles are labeled, as are the Torrid Zone on either side of the Equator, Northern and Southern Temperate Zones, and Northern and Southern Frigid Zones. On the globe, the ecliptic and equator are graduated by degrees.

Product description continues below.

Description

Some of the cartography on the outer globe is the same as the inner map, but other aspects are different. The globe has much more detailed information than the map, with some countries and cities labeled, and some national borders indicated by dotted lines. The Holbrook Apparatus Mfg. Co. had its antecedents in the globe business started by Josiah Holbrook in Connecticut in the 1830s. Josiah’s sons, Alfred and Dwight, followed their father’s lead, with the establishment of a Lyceum Village in Berea, Ohio, in the 1840s, where students gathered to learn and to assist in globe production for Holbrook & Co. This was followed in the 1850s by Holbrook Apparatus Mfg. Co., in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and The Holbrook School Apparatus Co. in Hartford. The firm was continued by family descendant Charles Holbrook in Chicago in the later part of the 19th Century. For more information about the Holbrook firm see our Guide to Globe Makers.

The Wethersfield facility produced innovative hinged three-inch globes such as the one offered, as well as five-inch hemispheric pocket globes. The cartography was generally very simple because the globe was designed for student use. There are several variations of this Holbrook 3-inch globe. Most are cream colored, with the continents having thick outlines in red, green and blue, and sometimes yellow. One variant has continents fully shaded in deep colors; another incorporated more conventional subtle full shading in pink, green, and yellow, with blue oceans.

Cartouche on Globe: HOLBROOKS/Apparatus/ Mfg. Co./ WETHERSFIELD. CT.

Rectangular Cartouche on Map: Holbrook/ Mfg. Co.

References:

Dekker, Elly and van der Krogt, Peter. Globes from the Western World. London: Zwemmer, 1993. p. 175.

Sumira, Sylvia. Globes: 400 Years of Exploration, Navigation and Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. p. 31.

Warner, Deborah Jean. “The Geography of Heaven and Earth.” Rittenhouse Journal of the American Scientific Instrument Enterprise, Vol. 2, No. 3. 1987. pp. 94-98 (all Holbrook manufacturers).

Yonge, Ena L. A Catalogue of Early Globes, Library Series No. 6. American Geographical Society: 1968.

Additional information

Maker Location

Maker

Globe Type

Terrestrial

Material

Hardwood, Wood, Mahogany

Century

19th Century