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 | [email protected] http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi.html -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dariusz Oczki Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 6:33 AM To: [email protected] 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 --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
