Historical Globes of the Red Planet

Introduction

During the last quarter of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century the surface markings of the planet Mars were observed and discussed by numerous astronomers of whom the most famous were Richard Anthony Proctor (1837-1888), Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835-1910), Nicolas Camille Flammarion (1842-1925), Jean Louis Nicolas Niesten (1844-1920), Eugène Michael Antoniadi (1870-1944) and Percival Lowell (1855-1916).

Although the early cartography of Mars has been discussed in several popular and scholarly papers, comparatively little has been written about the Martian globes that were commercially produced during this period. This web page attempts to present a survey of the various types of Martian globes that were produced before the advent of the Space Age.

As with all Mars maps published before the 1960s, the Martian globes have south on the top and north at the bottom as this is the common way in which the planet is viewed in astronomical telescopes from the northern hemisphere.

Known Types of Commercially-Produced Martian Globes

So far, I have found five different commercially-produced Martian globes mentioned in the literature:

• 1873 – Hans Busk/Malby and Sons
   
  • “A GLOBE | OF THE PLANET “Mars” | Scale 1 in to 450 Miles | Constructed by Captain Hans Busk, | of Trinity College Cambridge | And presented by him to his College. | MARCH 1873.”
  • Diameter 23 cm, height 35½ cm
  • Nomenclature of Proctor
  • Copies: Whipple Museum of the History of Science (Cambridge)
     
• 1884 – Camille Flammarion
   
  • “GLOBE GÉOGRAPHIQUE | de la Planète | MARS | d’après | CAMILLE FLAMMARION | E. Bertaux | Editeur | 25. Rue Serpente | Paris.” – click here for an image of the cartouche
  • Diameter 11 cm, height 17 cm
  • Nomenclature of Flammarion
  • Copies: Museum Observatoire Camille Flammarion (Juvisy-sur-Orge); Museum Boerhaave (Leiden); Science Museum (London); Museo La Specola (Padua); Národní technické muzeum (Prague); University Museum (Utrecht); Randy and Yulia Liebermann Lunar and Planetary Exploration Collection
     
• 1892 – Louis Niesten
   
  • “GLOBE DE MARS | dressé | PAR L. NIESTEN | d’après les observations faites | À BRUXELLES & À MILAN | NOMENCLATURE SCHIAPARELLI | NOMENCLATURE GREEN | J. Lebèque & C.° Bruxelles.”
  • Diameter 10 cm, height 22 cm
  • Nomenclature of Schiaparelli (in black) and Nathaniel Everett Green (in red) – click here for a b/w image of the globe segments
  • Copies: Science Museum (London); Museo La Specola (Padua); National Museum of American History (Washington)
     
• 1898 – Camille Flammarion & Eugène Antoniadi
   
  • “Globe Géographique | de la Planète | MARS | d’après | CAMILLE FLAMMARION | par E. Antoniadi | E. Bertaux, Editeur, Paris.” – click here for an image of the cartouche
  • Diameter 15 cm, height 25 cm
  • Nomenclature of Flammarion
  • Copies: Whipple Museum of the History of Science (Cambridge); Rundetaarn (Copenhagen); Museum Observatoire Camille Flammarion (Juvisy-sur-Orge); Collection d’instruments scientifiques UNIL EPFL (Lausanne); Oberösterreichischen Landesmuseum (Linz); Science Museum (London); Patrimoine Scientifique et Technique de l’Université de Strasbourg (Strasbourg); Astronomisches Büro (Vienna); Globenmuseum der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek (Vienna); Sammlung Schmidt (Vienna); Randy and Yulia Liebermann Lunar and Planetary Exploration Collection
    .
• 1903 – Heinrich Albrecht (Ernst Schotte & Co., Berlin)
   
•  
• Diameter 17 cm
• Nomenclature of Schiaparelli and Leo Brenner
• Copies: Globenmuseum der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek (Vienna)

The Martian Globes of Emmy Ingeborg Brun

Although only produced in a limited number, the hand-painted Martian globes of the Danish amateur astronomer Emmy Ingeborg Brun (1872-1929) deserve special mention for their beauty and detailed rendering of the supposed Martian canals.

• Varying inscriptions:
• “Mars efter | Lowells Glober | ca. 1903-1909 | FREE LAND • FREE TRADE • FREE MEN | Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”
• “Mars efter | Lowells Glober | ca. 1905-1909 | FREE LAND • FREE TRADE • FREE MEN | Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”
• “Mars efter | Lowells Glober | 1905-1909 | Free Land • Free Trade • Free Will • Free Men”
• “MARS | efter Lowells Glober | 1894-1914”
• “MARS | efter Lowells Glober | 1894-1914 | Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven | Free Land • Free Trade • Free Men”
• Diameter 20 cm; height 38-40 cm; base made of wood or bronze
• Hand-painted globes based on the observations of Percival Lowell – click here for a close-up view of a typical Brun globe
• Copies: Whipple Museum of the History of Science (Cambridge); Museo Specula Vaticana (Castel Gandolfo); National Museums Scotland (Edinburgh); National Maritime Museum (Greenwich); Museum Observatoire Camille Flammarion (Juvisy-sur-Orge); Ole Rømer Museet (Taastrup); Randy and Yulia Liebermann Lunar and Planetary Exploration Collection

Literature (chronological)

• Richard Anthony Proctor, “The Planet Mars: An Essay by a Whewellite”, Littell’s Living Age, 118 [= 5th series, 3] (1873), 488-497 [nr.1524; first printed in: The Cornhill Magazine] [Internet Archive link].
• Nicolas Camille Flammarion, La planète Mars et ses conditions d’habitabilité. Synthèse générale de toutes les observations: Climatologie, météorologie, aréographie, continents, mers et rivages, eaux et neiges, saisons, variations observées (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et fils, 1892) [Internet Archive link].
• Jean Louis Nicolas Niesten, “Aréographie: Description physique de la planète Mars”, Ciel et Terre: Revue populaire d’astronomie, de météorologie et de physique du globe, 13 (1892), 195-211 [ADS link].
• Jean Louis Nicolas Niesten, “Observations sur l’aspect physique de la planète Mars pendant les oppositions de 1884 à 1894”, Annales de l’observatoire royal de Belgique, Nouvelle série (Annales astronomiques), 8 (1904), 5:1-5:32 [ADS link].
• Nicolas Camille Flammarion, La planète Mars et ses conditions d’habitabilité. Encyclopédie générale des observations martiennes. Tome II: Observations faites de 1890 à 1901 (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1909) [Internet Archive link].
• Allan Frederick Miller, “A Globe of the Planet Mars”, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 14 (1920), 18 [ADS link].
• John Sternig, “Making a Globe of Mars”, Sky and Telescope, 6 (1947), nr. 10 [= 70], 6-7 [ADS link].
• James A. Roth, “Precision Globes of Mars”, Sky and Telescope, 27 (1964), 19 [ADS link].
• Jürgen Blunck, Mars and its Satellites: A Detailed Commentary on the Nomenclature (Hicksville [NY]: Exposition Press, 1977).
• Michael J. Crowe, The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750-1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell (Cambridge [etc.]: Cambridge University Press, 1986), chapter 10 [“The Battle over the Planet of War”].
• Jürgen Blunck, Heinz-Peter Jöns & Lothar Zögner, Der rote Planet im Kartenbild: 200 Jahre Marskartographie von Herschel, Beer und Mädler bis zur CD (Gotha [etc.]: Perthes, 1993 [= Ausstellungskataloge Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz; N.F., nr. 7]) [ADS link].
• Jürgen Blunck, “Der rote Planet im Kartenbild”, Sterne und Weltraum, 33 (1994), 360-367 [ADS link].
• Jürgen Blunck, “Die Geschichte der Globen des Mars und seiner Monde”, Der Globusfreund: Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für Globen- und Instrumentenkunde, 43/44 (1995/96 [1995]), 257-264.
• Dick, Steven J., The Biological Universe: The Twentieth-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), chapter 3 [“Life in the Solar System: The Limits of Observation”].
• William Sheehan, The Planet Mars: A History of Observation and Discovery (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996).
• William Sheehan & Stephen James O’Meara, Mars: The Lure of the Red Planet (Amherst [NY]: Prometheus Books, 2001).
• Philip Corneille, “Mapping the Moons of Mars: Phobos and Deimos”, BIS Spaceflight, 47 (2005), 190-193 [pdf link].
• Philip Corneille, “Mapping the Planet Mars”, BIS Spaceflight, 47 (2005), 270-273 [pdf link].
• Kristina Maria Doyle Lane, “Geographers of Mars: Cartographic Inscription and Exploration Narrative in Late Victorian Representations of the Red Planet”, Isis: An International Review devoted to the History of Science and its Cultural Influences, 96 (2005), 477-506 [JSTOR link].
• Kristina Maria Doyle Lane, “Mapping the Mars Canal Mania: Cartographic Projection and the Creation of a Popular Icon”, Imago Mundi: The International Journal for the History of Cartography, 58 (2006), 198-211.
• Kristina Maria Doyle Lane, Imaginative Geographies of Mars: The Science and Significance of the Red Planet 1877-1910 (Austin: University of Texas, 2006) – Ph.D. dissertation [ADS link].
• Guy J. Consolmagno, “A Brief History of the Vatican Meteorite Collection”, in: G.J.H. McCall, A.J. Bowden & R.J. Howarth (eds.), The History of Meteoritics and Key Meteorite Collections: Fireballs, Falls and Finds (London: Geological Society, 2006 [= Geological Society Special Publications, nr. 256]), pp. 205-217 [Geological Society link].
• Franz Wawrik, “The Manuscript Globes of Fritz Kerner von Marilaun”, Globe Studies: The Journal of the International Coronelli Society, 53/54 (2005/06 [2007]), 257-264 [JSTOR link].
• Kristina Maria Doyle Lane, Geographies of Mars: Seeing and Knowing the Red Planet (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).

I am grateful to Alison Boyle, Guy Consolmagno, Philip Corneille, Wolfgang Dick, Christopher Herd, James Hyslop, Randy Liebermann, Jean-François Loude, Peter Louwman, Peter Meurer and Deborah Warner for providing additions and corrections.

I would like to learn of other types of Martian globes commercially produced before the Space Age and in which collections they are presently kept.

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[last updated in September 2021]

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