Measuring & Mapping - Overview Where, how far, and how much?
People have invented an astonishing array of devices to answer
seemingly simple questions like these. Measuring and mapping
objects in the Museum's collections include the instruments of
the famous—Thomas Jefferson's thermometer and a pocket compass
used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition
across the American West. A timing device was part of the
pioneering motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge in the late
1800s. Time measurement is represented in clocks from simple
sundials to precise chronometers for mapping, surveying, and
finding longitude. Everyday objects tell part of the story, too,
from tape measures and electrical meters to more than 300 scales
to measure food and drink. Maps of many kinds fill out the
collections, from railroad surveys to star charts.