State Library jewel #1: special globes

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Most of us remember spotting the colorful classroom globe during our school years. But the State Library has two special globes that aren’t anything like what you saw in school. When you step off the elevator and enter the State Library’s public viewing area, you’ll see two unique globes on display to the right. One is a celestial globe, the other a terrestrial globe (above). These two globes were manufactured around 1850 by Malby and Son, one of the most prominent British globemakers of the mid-19th century. Both are part of the Territorial Library Collection, and the two globes are the first “candidate” for the June edition of “State Library jewels.” Here is specific info on celestial globes, which are three-dimensional maps that show the position of stars, constellations and other heavenly bodies. A terrestrial globe provides a three-dimension scale model of the Earth, including the shapes and sizes of large features. The Washington Territorial Library was established by the Organic Act, which created Washington Territory in 1853. Section 17 of the Organic Act provided $5,000 for a Washington Territorial Library. Washington Territory’s first governor, Isaac Stevens, used that money to purchase and ship some 2,000 volumes and reference materials around the Horn of South America. He also asked for documents and published archives from the executives of each state and territory of the United States and from a number of learned societies. These items made up the original Territorial Collection. Look for the other two Library jewels in the coming days.