Historical AttributesThe invoice included with this instrument is dated Liverpool, August 5, 1820 and is addressed to a Captain Charles Jayne for two dozen slides had from Benjamin Wood for £3.1.0. On the reverse of the page is a receipt dated October 31, 1820, showing that Jayne delivered the slides to a Mr. Samuel Evans of Savannah along with the balance of £3.5.0 not expended. This suggests that Evans commissioned Captain Jayne to get him the slides in Liverpool.
The manuscript instructions on the use of the microscope, signed by Benjamin Wood, refer to the new edition of George Adams's Essays on the Microscope, 1798.
Primary SourcesGeorge Adams, Essays on the Microscope, 2nd ed. (London: W. & S. Jones, 1798).
Provenancepurchased by Samuel Evans, Savannah, April 27, 1820; whereabouts unknown; Charles Morse, Newton, MA; gift of the widow, Mrs. Charles Morse, Newton, MA; gift to Ernst-Lewis Collection of Microscopes (inv. no. 4), Harvard Medical School, 1902.
Published ReferencesA.D. Morrison-Low, Making Scientific Instruments in the Industrial Revolution (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), p. 101.