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‘The Artist and the Moon’: Handlist of the Exhibition

Autumn, 1995





  1. Mural quadrant, 1773, by John Bird, radius 8 ft, commissioned and used by Thomas Hornsby at the Radcliffe Observatory. This and the other instruments used by Hornsby (see nos 7 and 8) illustrate the tools of professional astronomers, concerned with positional measurement, as distinct from the work of amateurs such as Russell and Herschel.
  2. John Russell, Proposals for Publishing by Subscription, a Globe of the Moon, printed broadside, three pages, no date.
  3. Pastel drawing of the moon, 1795, by Russell, paper stretched on canvas. Diameter: 1.45 metres.
  4. Moon globe in a mechanical stand, ‘Selenographia’, the gores engraved by Russell, 1797. Height: 500 mm.
  5. a-c. Pages of uncut printed gores for the Selenographia, 1797.
  6. Two uncut printed paper discs to apply to the globe at the convergence points of the gores – not at the poles, as is common on terrestrial globes, but at diametrically opposite points in the equatorial plane, 1797.
  7. Zenith sector, 1773, by John Bird, radius 12 ft, used by Thomas Hornsby.
  8. Mural quadrant c. 1767, by John Bird, radius 32 inches, used by Thomas Hornsby before the foundation of the Radcliffe Observatory.
  9. Reflecting telescope, Newtonian, focal length 7 ft, by William Herschel. Russell had a six-foot reflector by Herschel.
  10. Lunar planisphere: engraved illustration of the full moon. Diameter of the lunar disc in nos 10 and 11: 380 mm.
  11. Lunar planisphere: engraved map of the moon as if illuminated everywhere by oblique light, with a scale, ‘London. Published by Wm Faden, Novr. 26. 1806.’
  12. Printed title page: The Lunar Planispheres, Engraved by the Late John Russell, Esq R. A. from his Original Drawings. With a Description. London, ‘for the editor, William Russell’, 1809.
  13. First page of A Description of the Planispheres, printed on a large sheet to match nos 11 and 12, presumably with the intention of being issued together with the lunar planispheres. The Museum also has a smaller, folio version of the Description in the form of a printed pamphlet.
  14. Folio leather-bound album containing 180 pages of mounted sketches of the moon, 1764 to 1805.
  15. Manuscript letter from Russell to Thomas Hornsby, 19th February 1789.
  16. Printed pamphlet. J. Russell, A Description of the Selenographia: an Apparatus for Exhibiting the Phenomena of the Moon. Together with an Account of some of the Purposes which it may be applied to, London, 1797. Twenty-seven pages and a folding plate.
  17. Pages from the Illustrated London News, 18th October 1930, containing extracts from an article by E. J. Stone on Russell’s lunar work in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and a large illustration of the pastel drawing by Russell.
  18. Refracting telescope signed ‘DOLLOND LONDON’, c. 1770. Focal length 42 inches, on wooden tripod and altazimuth mount. Russell’s favourite instrument was a Dollond refractor.
  19. Lunar planisphere. A third, apparently unfinished engraved map of the moon, similar in size to the other two (nos 10 and 11) and, like the obliquely illustrated planisphere, engraved: ‘London. Published by Wm Faden, Novr. 26. 1806.’