The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago is home to one of the world's three or four great collections of astrolabes. In this volume Roderick and Marjorie Webster, Adler Curators Emeriti, present the Western astrolabes from the Adler's collection. The earliest of these instruments dates from the thirteenth century; others are from the workshops of the greatest craftsmen of the Renaissance. All are described here and illustrated with photographs showing the front, the back, and additional details such as the maker's signature. Introductory essays by the Websters and Sara Schechner Genuth explain the use of the astrolabe and its role in cultural and social history, while the appendices and bibliography provide information essential to the specialist.
Roderick Webster (1915-1997) was a foundry engineer, educated at the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Michigan. His wife, Marjorie Webster, an archaeologist, received her education at Sarah Lawrence College and the University of California at Berkeley. Their interest in the Adler Planetarium and its collection of scientific instruments started in 1962 when they volunteered to serve as supervisors of the collection. They were volunteers for the next 35 years. From 1962 to 1969 they took care of the collection and in 1969 they were appointed co-curators. In 1991 they were named Curators Emeriti of the collection. Since then they have remained very active in the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum. Both were members of many scholarly societies and traveled widely to attend meetings and study collections of scientific instruments. Roderick and Marjorie Webster served as Trustees of the Adler Planetarium, and Roderick Webster was Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1986 to 1989.
Sara Schechner Genuth is a scholar-in-residence at the American Institute of Physics and a research fellow at the National Museum of American History. She operates a consulting business, Gnomon Research, that provides curatorial and historical support to museums, private collectors, educators, and others. From 1983 until 1990, she served as Curator of the History of Astronomy Collection at the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum. She continues as a principal investigator and editor of the Adler's instrument catalogues.
The General Editor of the Catalogue Project of the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, Bruce Chandler is Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Mathematics Department of the College of Staten Island, CUNY. He received a Ph. D. in Mathematics from New York University and has written and edited books and articles in the fields of horology, Group Theory, and the history of mathematics. He was founding editor (with Harold Edwards) of The Mathematical Intelligencer, General Editor of the catalogue projects of The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University, and The Time Museum, Rockford, Illinois, and is a fellow of The New York Academy of Sciences.
