178 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
LEWIS MORRIS RUTHERFURD 
Born, November 25, 1816; died, May 30, 1892 
Lewis Morris Rutherfurd numbered among his ancestors 
some who were prominent in the early history of the United 
States, including Senator John Rutherfurd, Lewis Morris, Chief 
Justice of New York and New Jersey, who was also the first 
Governor of New Jersey, and that other Lewis Morris who 
signed the Declaration of Independence. 
The subject of the present brief sketch was born in Morrisania, 
now a part of New York City, November 25, 1816. After his 
graduation from Williams College in 1834, he served as assistant 
to the professor of physics and astronomy in preparations for 
experiments, and in the construction of apparatus. Law studies 
in the office of William H. Seward occupied his attention for 
two years, and later he became a partner of Hamilton Fish. 
Mr. Rutherfurd’s greatest interest, however, had always been 
in astronomy, and through his marriage with Margaret Stuy- 
vesant Chandler, niece and adopted daughter of Peter Stuy- 
vesant, he found the means of engaging in this study. The 
Stuyvesant home became a center for astronomical observations. 
Under Mr. Rutherfurd’s direction, an observatory with an 114- 
inch telescope and a transit instrument was established, a work- 
shop also being added in which excellent instruments were con- 
structed. 
After some years his law practice was given up, and on his 
return from Europe, which he had visited on account of his 
wife’s ill health, he threw all his energies into scientific investi- 
gations. While in Paris, Mr. Rutherfurd became intimate with 
Amici, who was carrying on experiments upon achromatism of 
objectives for microscopes, and to this may possibly be attributed 
Rutherfurd’s application to microscopes of the devices he had 
so successfully used for telescopes. The observatory in New 
York was, by courtesy, used as a primary station for the deter- 
mination of longitudes, by the Coast Survey, “ Stuyvesant 
Garden,” being named as one of the points. 
