Microscopes and Visualizing Minutia
The invention of and fascination with microscopes and visualizing previously unseen worlds exemplifies the spirit of inquiry and the enthusiasm for empirical observation that drove the Scientific Revolution. Microscopes were a European invention, but, like other elements of the Scientific Revolution, the story of their invention and use is intimately intertwined with extra–European cultures and civilizations. We have curated a selection of three microscopes, all of which were created using materials transported to Europe from other continents and civilizations, to illustrate the importance of global cultures even to European inventions.
Tripod Compound Microscope
Appx. 1800-1840
Brass, glass, mahogany, pine, ivory
The Tripod Compound Microscope was invented by Londoner Edmund Culpeper in the 18th century. But this model, like countless other microscopes, could not exist if not for America and Africa. Constructed with Caribbean wood and African ivory, the microscope demonstrates just how influential other cultures and continents were to even bonafide European creations.
Shagreen Tripod Microscope
Appx. 1725-1730
Shagreen, glass, brass, lignum vitae, boxwood, pasteboard withgold tooling
Here we have another Tripod Microscope, constructed decades before the one above. It too relies on extra-European materials: Caribbean wood and shagreen. Shagreen, in and of itself, defies even enlightened definitions of the Scientific Revolution that credit the Americas as central to the movement. Shagreen, the skin of a stingray or shark, came to Europe from Japan, demonstrating the importance of all cultures, even those outside of Europe's sphere of exploration, in the Scientific Revolution and inventions like the microscope.
Robert Hooke's Micrographia, or, Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses
1655
Microscopes, we have seen, were created with a host of extra-European materials. We selected Robert Hooke's Micrographia to demonstrate how microscopes changed the way Europeans viewed their own world, and, therefore, the role other civilizations played in creating that change. In Micrographia, Hooke describes his observations of various objects, including plants, insects, and rocks, as seen through his microscope. In this image, Hooke focuses on the magnified image of a flea, creating an image with an unprecedented level of detail--detail Europeans would not have observed without crafting microscopes like the ones above which required looking beyond Europe.