by Stephen Johnston

Abstract

At the beginning of 2026 I was able to visit Jacksonville, Florida with the help of an SIS research grant. I spent three days at the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, on the St John’s River. This is the unexpected repository for a small number of early European instruments, acquired in the 1950s and ’60s by the US National Park Service. My Fireside Chat gives an informal account of the research visit, and particularly its chief purpose – the examination of a silver astronomical compendium dated 1577, attributable to the key London maker Humfrey Cole. Apart from the object itself, I will also talk about how and why it – and a handful of others – came to be on display in Florida.

Bio
Stephen Johnston is Curator Emeritus at the History of Science Museum, University of Oxford, where he was based from 1995 to 2023. Most of his research has been centred on the practical mathematical arts, particularly in the Renaissance, but also extending to 18th- and 19th-century topics, and ranging from architecture to calculation. Recent work has focused on the instruments of medieval astronomy and astrology, and his 2024 SIS Gerard Turner lecture appeared in last year’s Bulletin as “Back to the future: new approaches to the astrolabe”.

Scientific Instrument Society is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. For a more detailed account, see Stephen Johnston’s blog post.