Queen Holmes's demonstration compound microscope
Datecirca 1878
Inventory Number1090
ClassificationMicroscope
Subject
Maker
James W. Queen & Company
1853 - 1893
User
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr
1809 - 1894
Maker
Robert B. Tolles
1823 - 1883
Place of Origin
Dimensions30.5 × 10.1 × 30.5 cm (12 × 4 × 12 in.)
Material
AccessoriesTolles objective; Tolles eyepiece
DescriptionThis is a Queen & Co. monocular compound microscope owned by Dr. Oliver Wendel Holmes. The eyepiece tube is held by an inclining collar and supported by a wooden pillar secured to a wooden block on top of a flat wooden base. The microscope has a small cast-iron circular stage that that stands on a metal post, and there also a small mirror on an adjustable arm extending from this post. The other end of the wooden base supports a kerosene lamp.
In Collection(s)
Signedon brass disc on base: James W Queen & Co / Philadelphia & New York
Inscribedon brass disc on base, in italics: Holmes
Curatorial RemarksThe microscope has a Tolles objective 1/4 with a correction collar, dated 12/7/1872. It was tested 9/28/70 on a Swift SRL microscope and determined to be about 40x and quite flat and bright.
A note by Dr. Lewis reads as follows: "The most attractive of the Holmes' microscopes. A reflecting mirror, very small, is attached to the metal portion of the stand and above the stage as in 1091, but it has no reflector below the stage beyond the lamp thus differing from 1091. There were no lenses with the outfit, but a Tolles 1/4 inch objective was supplied and the only odd eyepiece which would fit the tube was also a Tolles. A slide of diatomes (Navicula rhomboides) from 'Bemes Lake NH 1865' which was among the test objects in Minot's histalogical collection, is well seen with this combination of lenses (but the objective goes closer than 1/4 and the proper aperture of diaphram must be used). See also note on 1027."
ProvenanceErnst-Lewis Collection, Harvard Medical School
Historical AttributesThis microscope was owned by Dr. Oliver Wendel Holmes and used in classroom demonstration.
From a label by Dr. Lewis:
"Professor John Quekett's 'Lectures on Histology, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons in England were published in London 1852 (628 pp). "To exhibit preparations to a large class," he used 8 traveling microscopes mounted on carriages and sent [them] from one observer to another....The railroad or tramway is of mahogany, 1 ft wide, 2 in thick in the form of semicircles firmly fixed to walls of brick. Queckett's 'Treatise on the Microscope,' 3rd ed. London 1855, shows this theatre as its frontispiece....Prof Holmes, fearing himself a fanatic in seeking to simplify and cheapen the mechanical parts of the microscope, dispensed with the tramway and devised the instruments here shown (1027, 1028, 1090, 1091). They were passed from hand to hand around the class. [No. 1027] is what he called 'the uncouth approximation to the idea worked out to my content in the not inelegant instrument you see before you as now manufactured in Philadelphia... [microscope 1090] which I have used with satisfaction for a number of years.'
(OW Holmes, microscopical society address 1877).
James W. Queen & Company
Date: circa 1873
Accessories: objective 1/2" engraved W. Wales, NY.; eyepiece 32.3 mm in diameter; diaphragm wheel; articulated concave mirror for illumination; wooden base
Object number: 2002-1-0051
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr
Date: circa 1865
Accessories: ocular; objective
Object number: 1027
James W. Queen & Company
Date: circa 1890
Object number: 2007-1-0060
Boston Optical Works
Date: 1860-1890
Accessories: Three dated Tolles objectives: 1/2" Nov. 18, 1860, 1/4" Dec. 23, 1877, 1/5" Oct. 28, 1868; 1 high power solid eyepiece, 1 low power normal eyepiece; polarizer; substage mirror; mechanical stage, standing case.
Object number: 1066
Boston Optical Works
Date: circa 1870
Accessories: 3 Tolles objectives: 1 with 3 fronts; empty can 8/10; 5 Tolles oculars 34 mm dia.: 2 all solid, 2 solid field l. & single eye lens, 1 std.; centerable condenser with diaphragm wheel; mech. stage; side illuminator prism; cabinet.
Object number: 1016a
Boston Optical Works
Date: circa 1870
Accessories: 3 Tolles objectives: 1 with 3 fronts; empty can 8/10; 5 Tolles oculars 34 mm dia.: 2 all solid, 2 solid field l. & single eye lens, 1 std.; blue filter; case; key. Also see 1016a: microscope with centerable condenser with diaphragm wheel; and mechanical stage. 1016c: side illumination prism. 1016d, e, f: specialized Tolles objectives.
Object number: 1016b
Spencer Lens Company
Date: circa 1875
Accessories: objectives (6): Tolles 8/10 " dated 5/1/1863, 2 marked Spencer on can, 1 European shape "5", 2 other; oculars (2); polarizer set; box of general subjects slides; substage mirror; magnifier; case
Object number: 1159
Robert B. Tolles
Date: circa 1874
Accessories: 3 Objectives: Tolles (?) with front element missing, no date; Leitz 1/12 oel imm., tubus 160 mm; Tolles 1/6" 35 deg., no date; 4 Tolles oculars 24.5 mm dia.; condensor w. iris; diaphragm wheel; substage mirror w. opt. stand; Nichol's micr.; case. camera luc Abbe condensor; diaphragm wheel; separate stand f. substage mirror; standing case.
Object number: 1305
Robert B. Tolles
Date: circa 1875
Accessories: 2 Tolles objectives: 1/8" dated 6/27/1866; 1/8" 120 deg. dated 3/7/1869, can marked: Immersion, also scratched: C. X. D. 1902; empty can for Tolles 1/4", now on inverted Tolles Nr. 1203; 2 oculars, no name, not solid, 24.5 mm dia.; Standing case.
Object number: 1127
Robert B. Tolles
Date: circa 1880
Accessories: Tolles ocular, 24.5 mm dia.; Tolles 1/4" objective; no condensor; diaphragm wheel; concave/flat substage mirror; standing walnut case.
Object number: 1294