Benjamin Rittenhouse
Surveyor's Plain Compass

Public Domain

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Maker Benjamin Rittenhouse (American, 1740–1825)American, 1740–1825

CultureAmerican

Titles

Surveyor's Plain Compass

Datec. 1775

Made inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

MediumBrass, steel, silvering, wax composition, and glass

Dimensions11 1/4 × 14 × 6 1/2 in. (28.6 × 35.6 × 16.5 cm)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by Susan Neptune

Object numberB.2017.7

Current Location

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens

Federal Parlor

On view

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Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS & WEIGHTS

DescriptionAfter North America was explored, conquered, and colonized, its land quickly made the transition from wilderness to property that was claimed, traded, bought, and sold. It was the surveyor’s work to measure and delineate tracts of land to help make these transactions possible, and one of the surveyor’s most important tools was the compass. This example, by the Pennsylvania instrument maker Benjamin Rittenhouse, is called a “plain compass,” meaning that it cannot compensate for the difference between true north and magnetic north. East and west are reversed on the compass dial to make it easier to read bearings in the field.

ProvenanceBy inheritance from his father to Richard White, Seeley Lake, Montana; [Jeffrey D. Lock, Colonial Instruments, Tallmadge, Ohio]; purchased by MFAH, 2017.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Engraved on lower arm below the dials South compass point: BENJ,ᴺ RITTENHOUSE

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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