Two years later the Boston directory listed Andrew Newell and 

 Son, and in 1800 the listing included only the name of Joseph 

 Newell, who may have been the son. Another mathematical 

 instrument maker named Charles Newell may have been another 

 son of Andrew Newell; his name does not appear in the city 

 Directory until in the 19th century. An instrument with the 

 signature "Newell & Son, Makers, East End of Faneuil Hall, 

 Boston" is in the collection of the Bostonian Society. 



An important feature of the Newell instrument is the fact 

 that the engraver of the compass card was Nathaniel Hurd (1729- 

 1777), the peer of goldsmiths and engravers of the colonial period. 

 This compass card is a previously unrecorded example of Hurd's 

 work, and constitutes a work of art, making the compass a historic 

 scientific instrument.^^^ The compass was presented to the Yale 

 University Art Gallery by a Yale alumnus, Mr. Henry G. Schiff 

 of New York City. No other examples have thus far been found. 



Aaron Breed 



Aaron Breed (1791-1861) is a relatively unknown maker of 

 mathematical instruments who worked in Boston into the 19th 

 century. He specialized in nautical, mathematical and optical 

 instruments, with an address at 173 Broad Street, and another 

 at No. 2 Rowe's Wharf, "At the Sign of the Quadrant." Breed 

 made surveying instruments in brass and in wood. ^ brass instru- 

 ment is in the Henry Ford Museum, and a wooden instrument is in 

 the collection of Old Sturbridge Village. The latter is fashioned 

 from walnut with an engraved compass card inscribed "Aaron 

 Breed Boston." 



Charles Thacher 



The name of Charles Thacher appears on the compass card of a 

 wooden surveying compass (fig. 58) in the collection of the Mariners' 

 Museum, Norfolk, Virginia. No record of this maker has been 

 found, but the engraved compass card indicates that he probably 

 worked in New England. 



"^ John M. Phillips," An Unrecorded Engraving by Nathaniel Hurd," Bulletin 

 oj the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University (June 1936), vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 16-21 . 



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