I am currently completing a catalogue of the sundials at the Adler Planetarium
in Chicago, having at an earlier stage in my career been the chief curator of
the instrument collection there. I am now the curator of Harvard's Collection
of Historical Scientific Instruments, which has what we think is the largest
collection of sundials in North America. I am also cataloguing this
collection. Another large sundial collection with close to 400 items is that
of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
But before one considers numbers, we must decide what counts as a sundial. Are
we including other time finding instruments in these collections such as
astronomical compendia, horary quadrants, de Rojas astrolabes and other
astrolabic instruments (on their own or built into compendia)--all of which use
the sun to find time? What about nocturnals (which use the stars, but are
often considered part of sundial collections)? What about clocks with sundials
built into them for setting the timekeeper?
If you tell me what's in and what's out, I'll give you numbers I know at this
time. But please be aware that these collections are still growing.
Sara
Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D.
David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific
Instruments
Department of the History of Science, Harvard University
Science Center 251c, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-496-9542 | Fax: 617-496-5932 | sche...@fas.harvard.edu
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi.html
-Original Message-
From: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] On
Behalf Of Dariusz Oczki
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 6:33 AM
To: sundial@uni-koeln.de
Subject: Sundials in museums (world-wide)
Dear Diallists
I am sure many of you have heard about a sundial collection in Jędrzejów
(Jedrzejow), Poland which can be seen in the Przypkowski Museum. There is one
information repeated for many years about the collection which I would like to
confirm or update. It says the Jędrzejów sundial collection is the third
biggest in the world after those in Chicago and Oxford. Now, I've got two
questions:
1. Could anyone provide the numbers of sundial they have (ie. museums in
Chicago and Oxford)?
2. Are there any other big sundial collections exceeding 400 pieces?
In the late 70. this info could be true but as the Jędrzejów collection is no
longer expanding the situatian could dramaticaly change. All I need is to find
out the present score and if necessery update the info in our local media. I
would be very gratefull for the exact numbers. A curator from the Przypkowski
Museum already gave me the real number of sundials in Jędrzejów (457 amongst
677 all kinds of astronomical instruments).
--
Best regards
Darek Oczki
52N 21E
Warsaw, Poland
GNOMONIKA.pl
Sundials in Poland
http://gnomonika.pl
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