Object Details
- Description
- Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek (1635-1723) was a Dutch tradesman who became interested in microscopy while on a visit to London in 1666. Returning home, he began making simple microscopes of the sort that Robert Hooke had described in his, Micrographia, and using them to discover objects invisible to the naked eye.
- In 1886, John Mayall, a prominent English microscopist, made drawings of an original Leeuwenhoek microscope that belonged to the Zoological Laboratories at the University of Utrecht, and that a Dutch professor had brought to London. Replicas followed soon thereafter. The Smithsonian purchased this example from the Rijksmuseum voor de Geschiedenis der Natuurwetenschappen in Leiden. The inscription reads “COPIE / LEIDEN.”
- Ref: J. Mayall, “Leeuwenhoek’s Microscopes,” Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society 6 (1886): 1047-1049.
- J. van Zuylen, “The Microscopes of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek,” Journal of Microscopy 121 (1981): 309-328.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- 1961
- associated dates
- 1961 05 13 / 1961 05 13
- ID Number
- MG.M-09840
- accession number
- 236657
- catalog number
- M-09840
- Object Name
- Microscope
- microscope
- Physical Description
- metal, brass (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 1 in x 3 in x 1 in; 2.54 cm x 7.62 cm x 2.54 cm
- overall: 3 cm x 2.3 cm x 9 cm; 1 3/16 in x 29/32 in x 3 17/32 in
- associated place
- Netherlands: South Holland, Leyden
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Medicine
- Nursing
- Record ID
- nmah_1060587
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-268e-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
