Octant
- Object Name:
- Octant
- Object ID:
- 2025.062
- Date:
- 1750-1770
- Description:
- Octant or reflecting quadrant, used by Samuel Lane (1718-1806) of Stratham, NH, c. 1750-1770.
- Material:
- Wood
Metal
Glass - Dimensions:
- H-25.625 W-21.125 D-1 inches
- Provenance:
- Samuel Lane was born in Hampton, NH on October 6, 1718, as the eldest son of Bathsheba Robie Lane and tanner and shoemaker Joshua Lane. In 1741 Samuel moved to nearby Stratham where he hired a joiner to build him a house; Samuel married Mary James of Hampton in December of that year, and the couple moved into their new home in January 1742; the couple would go on to have eight children between 1744 and 1760. Lane had learned shoemaking through an apprenticeship with his father, but also studied with Hampton surveyor Samuel Palmer. In Stratham he worked as a farmer, shoemaker, surveyor, and tanner. By the late 1740s Lane was undertaking an increasing amount of surveying work in surrounding towns, and was appointed an assistant to the surveyor of His Majesty's lands in New Hampshire in 1750. He purchased his surveying equipment from mathematical instrument makers in Boston, including compasses from Joseph Halsy and Thomas Greenough. The octant passed through the family to the great-great-great-great-great grandaughter, and donor, Cameron Lane.
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Cameron Lane
- People:
- Lane, Samuel (1718-1806)
- Subjects:
- Surveying equipment, Surveying instruments, Surveying, Surveyors
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