Description
Robert Morden (c.1650–1703), William Berry (1639–1718) and Philip Lea were globe makers who worked both as individuals and as a partnership, and had each apprenticed with Joseph Moxton (1667–1691). The famous diarist Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) and microscopist Robert Hooke (1635–1703) were both customers of the partnership and Lea was employed by Pepys to stain and colour his collection of maps. This terrestrial globe is constructed of wood and covered in twelve paper gores (tapered shapes designed to fit the surface of the sphere) and two polar calottes (circular caps). The gores have been printed from copper engravings and hand-tinted. Another example of this globe design exists at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Having been used as aids for sea merchants since the twelfth century, the role of maps in navigation practices had been well established by the seventeenth century; however, the use of the globe for this purpose diminished during this later period for three reasons: the difficulty of making accurate measurements around a curved surface, the small scale of the map that infringed on cartographic detail and the fragile nature of the object. This globe by Morden depicts the circumnavigation of Sir Francis Drake (1540–1596) and Thomas Cavendish (1560–1592), which suggests that the object was intended to encourage others to explore and expand commercial enterprises. It is also possible that this globe was a reference tool used to plan and visualize trade routes and the location of ships enroute. The politics of the spice trade meant that the English were seeking more convenient routes to Asia that circumvented the high taxes required for crossing overland routes through Arabic Empires and the long route around Cape Horn. As the Morden globe included navigational illustrations such as ships, compass points and rhumb lines, in addition to the celebrated English voyages outlined above, this object demonstrated the importance of global exploration in the late seventeenth century and reflects an intellectual trend that stressed up-to-date observations brought back from explorers.

14/01/2014
Created by: Allison Ksiazkiewicz on 14/01/2014