The First and Only Southern Celestial Atlas?
An Exceptionally Rare American Celestial Atlas
Very rare Lexington, Kentucky-published celestial atlas, produced by Samuel M'Cullough, as a companion to his massive celestial wall map, titled Map of the Visible Heavens on an Equatorial or Concave Globular Projection.
The plates for the atlas were first engraved in 1824 for Jacob Green and Anthony Finley's Astronomical Recreations, which is believed to be the first American celestial atlas, predating the first Burritt by more than a decade. Many of the plates are signed "Hamm Sc." This would be Phineas Eldridge Hamm, a map engraver in Philadelphia who was active up to 1837.
According to Stauffer (American Engravers):
The name of P. E. Hamm, “engraver,” appears in the Philadelphia directories for 1825-27, inclusive; until 1839 the same name and address are given, with “coal- dealer” as the occupation; and in 1840-45 Phineas E. Hamm was the assistant city treasurer of Philadelphia. The engraved work so signed is usually in line, though he executed a few good portraits in stipple.
Hamm's plates follow Bode's designs quite closely, with the advertisement in Finley's celestial atlas including the following note: "The plates have been faithfully reduced from those in the last edition of the magnificent Atlas of Bode, published in Germany a few years since..." M'Cullough reiterates this in his own preface: "the copper-plate engravings are faithful copies, reduced from the maps of the celebrated Bode."
Changes Between the Finley Edition and the M'Cullough Edition
The plates for this atlas were substantially revised from the original 1824 Finley atlas. The plate numbers are often changed, for instance, "Plate 1" in the Finley is now "Plate 2". Whereas in the Finley there were four orders of apparent stellar magnitude, in M'Cullough's book there are now five. Dozens of fainter stars have been added to each plate. And many more stars are now named.
Here follows a list of the plates:
- Ursa Major. Leo Minor.
- Ursa Minor. Draco.
- Perseus et Caput Medusae. Cassiopeia. Andromeda.
- Lynx. Auriga.
- Corona Borealis. Bootes et Mons Menalus.
- Cygnus. Vultur et Lyra. Hercules.
- Delphinus. Equuleus. Pegasus.
- Ophiuchus et Serpens. Taurus Poniatovii.
- Pisces Borealis et Australis. Aries.
- Taurus. Orion. Gemini. Canis Minor.
- Cancer. Leo. Sextans Urania.
- Virgo. Libra.
- Scorpio. Sagittarius. Lupus. Ara.
- Capricornus. Aquarius. Piscis Notus.
- Cetus. Eridanus.
- Sceptrum Brandenbergium. Monoceros. Caput Hydrae.
- Hydra. Crater. Corvus. Centaurus.
- Telescopic Appearance of the Moon.
- Folding diagram.
Rarity
No copies in RBH.
The book is listed in the 1860 Catalog Raisonne of Cincinnati bookseller Ricky, Mallory and Company on p. 189.
Samuel D. McCullough was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1803.
McCullough attended Transylvania College, graduating in 1824.
For fourteen years he conducted a female academy, the Lexington Female Academy and thereafter renamed Lafayette Female Academy, honoring the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the school on January 25, 1825. The academy had been founded by former Vermont Secretary of State Josiah Dunham (1769-1844), who had previously been the principal of the Windsor Female Seminary from 1816 to 1821.
McCullough also consulted with Thomas Barlow, who created a planetarium in Lexington. McCullough noted:
Upon one or two occasions that venerable gentleman came to me for some information regarding the times and the inclinations of the axes of the interior [inferior?] planets. I candidly expressed some doubts to him about his ability to make machinery exhibit the motions of Mercury and the moon; so tedious to calculate even by figures. After finishing his planetarium, which I had watched with much interest during its progress, he invited me to see it work. The difficulties I and others had suggested, his indomitable genius and skill had triumphantly surmounted; and I stood, astonished, marvelling at the man's amazing mechanical powers.
Thereafter, he engaged in the manufacture and sale of mustard, having inherited a recipe from a relative, Nathan Burrowes.
The Editor's Note to SAMUEL D. McCULLOUGH'S REMINISCENCES OF LEXINGTON notes:
The late Samuel D. McCullough was Principal of a female academy on Market Street which he continued for 14 years. He was graduated (A. B. degree) at Transylvania University in 1824 and a few years after received the degree of A. M. For many years he conducted the manufacture of Burrows' world renowed Lexington Mustard. He was devoted to local history and antiquities, but his particular forte was astronomy.
McCullough's Almanacs, Map of the Heavens and Text Book on Astronomy had more than a local reputation. He became a member of the Masonic fraternity in 1824, and continued to be one of its most ardent supporters to the day of his death . . .