CECIL E. HANSON COLLECTION
ANTIQUE SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS

AMERICAN LEVELS

Stackpole & Brother - New York, NY ca. 1870's

Serial Number: 2344
Telescope Length: 18"
Spirit level Length: 8-1/2"
Objective Diameter: 1-1/4"
Height: 7"
Weight: Instrument - 13.3 lb; Instrument + Case - 22.3 lb
Condition: Good
Case: Mohagony, 23" x 7" x 6"
Found: Bought from Buff & Buff, Boston, October 21, 1966
CEH Inventory# L3

Based on the historical data for Stackpole & Brother instruments given below, this level with serial number 2344 was most likely manufactured in the mid-to-late 1870s.

Excerpts from the National Museum of American History website:

"William Stackpole (1819–1895) and Robert Stackpole (1823–1873) were Irish immigrants who arrived in the United States in 1833. Trading as Stackpole & Brother, they began making mathematical instruments in 1851. During the Civil War, they made spyglasses and sextants for the Navy. Each Stackpole instrument carries a serial number, and the sale of instrument #655 in 1866 suggests that the firm averaged some 44 instruments per year. According to the 1870 Census of Industry, the Stackpoles had $12,000 invested in the firm, hired eleven men and two children, and were then producing 250 surveying and nautical instruments worth $26,900. In the early 1870s they made instruments for the American expeditions sent to observe the transit of Venus. The firm remained in business until 1910" (https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_746013)

"This level, with a "STACKPOLE & BROTHER, NEW YORK 1490" inscription, probably dates from the early 1870s when the firm was making various instruments for the expeditions that would view the 1874 transit of Venus." (https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_748724)

From: Smart, Charles E. The Makers Of Surveying Instruments In America Since 1700  Troy, New York; Regal Art Press. 1962 

"William Stackpole was born in Ireland in 1819.  He died in Brooklyn, New York in 1895.  Robert Stackpole was born in Ireland in 1823 and died in Brooklyn in 1873.  Both William and Robert came to Baltimore, Maryland with their parents in 1833.   While there, William was apprenticed to a manufacturer of mechanical engineering instruments.  The Stackpole's settled in New York City in 1843.   New York city directories list:   William Stackpole, mathematical instruments, from 1843 to 1848.   In 1851 Robert Stackpole joined his brother William in business under the firm name of Stackpole and Brother (1851 to 1910)."