#personal collection

Emmeline Pankhurst outside the Houses of Parliament, London

‘The Chaucer Astrolabe’

On display at the British Museum

Dating to 1326 and of English origin, this is the oldest extant European astrolabe. It is known today as the ‘Chaucer Astrolabe’ because a similar instrument was described by Geoffrey Chaucer in a treatise written in 1391.

In the late medieval period, astrolabes were used to measure the altitude of celestial bodies in order to determine the time or to make astrological predictions. Medieval science, and particularly medicine, looked to astrology in order to explain a variety of natural phenomena including epidemic diseases like the plague.

Autumn Walks Part II: Yorkshire Dales

Block printed cotton and linen gown, c. 1740-1760

On display at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

Oblique Mercator projection explanatory diagram

Washington, D.C. axonometric map (detail)

Havana area aeronautical chart

Distribution of occupations by race and nationality, Statistical Atlas of the United States 1898.

Flight routes, World Geographic Atlas for the Container Corporation of America, 1953.

Copenhagen street map, circa 1948 (detail)

Grand Canyon map (Phantom Ranch detail)