Willard Orrery

Object Details

Willard, Jr., Aaron

Description

Like many instruments of the sort made in London, this American one could be used as an orrery (Sun and planets out to Saturn) or a tellurian (Sun, Earth and Moon), with the mechanisms moved by a crank with an ivory handle. Four elegant brass legs support a mahogany horizon circle. The printed paper label covering this circle is marked “MADE-BY / Aaron Willard Jr. / BOSTON.” There is one brass Sun that can be used with either form. The planets are ivory. The plate of the tellurian mechanism is marked “A. WILLARD JR. BOSTON.”

Aaron Willard Jr. (1783-1864) was a productive and prosperous clockmaker in Boston who apprenticed with his father and took over the business in 1823. He probably made this instrument in collaboration with John Locke (1792-1856), a graduate of the Yale Medical School who settled in Cincinnati. Locke also established a school for young ladies, developed an electro-chronograph for the U.S. Naval Observatory, and made important contributions to American geology.

Ref: William Ball Jr., “Another American Orrery,” Antiques 4 (October 1938): 184-185.

“Willard’s Portable Orrery,” The Weekly Recorder (Jan. 17, 1821): 166, from Boston Centinel.

Location

Currently not on view (orrery)

ca 1820

ID Number

1986.0466.01

catalog number

86.466.1

accession number

1986.0466

catalog number

1986.0466.01

Object Name

orrery

Physical Description

brass (overall material)

wood (overall material)

ivory (overall material)

paper (overall material)

Measurements

overall (case): 25.3 cm x 37.5 cm x 35.6 cm; 9 31/32 in x 14 3/4 in x 14 1/32 in

place made

United States: Massachusetts, Boston

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences

Globes

Measuring & Mapping

National Museum of American History

subject

Astronomy

Record ID

nmah_1183736

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-429f-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa