capable of filling the position left vacant by the detachment 

 of Lieutenant Goldsborough, the Board of Commissioners 

 recommended Lieuts. Charles Wilkes, H. A. Adams, and T. 

 R. Gedney. Of these Lieut. Charles Wilkes was chosen, and 

 assumed charge on the 12th of March, 1833. (Navy Com- 

 missioners' Letters to Officers, vol. 1, p. 587, Files of the 

 Navy Department.) 

 Lieutenant Wilkes, with the consent of the Board of Removal of the 



Depot to Capitol 



Commissioners, removed the Depot, early in 1834, to what uin. 

 was known as the " Wilkes House," on Capitol Hill, and 

 erected near by, at his own expense, a small observatory, 

 " situated about 1 ,000 feet north of the dome of the Capitol," 

 in which was mounted a 5-foot transit instrument. (Memoir 

 of the Founding of the U. S. Naval Observatory, Prof. J. E. 

 Nourse, U. S. N., p. 14.) 



Although the Depot was thus given somewhat the char- 

 acter of an observatory, no regular series of astronomical 

 observations were made during Lieutenant Wilkes's super - 

 intendency, the transit instrument being employed mainly 

 in rating chronometers. The work performed at the depot 

 was almost solely that pertaining to the care and purchase 

 of charts and instruments, and their issue to vessels on go- 

 ing to sea. 



In May, 1835, the recommendation of the Board of Com- purchase of a 

 missioners fthat a lithographic press be purchased for use in press^orthe De^ 

 the depot, first made at the suggestion of Lieutenant Golds- pot ' 

 borough some four years previous, was carried into effect. 

 (Navy Commissioners' Letters to Officers, vol. 11, p. 70, Files 

 of the Navy Department.) 



The introduction of this press was the initial step towards First ntho- 

 chart-production at the Depot, and in the following autumn f 8 r S u , e d? d chart8 

 the first lithographed charts made their appearance. 



In the summer of 1836, Lieutenant Wilkes was sent to 

 Europe, under authority of the Navy Department, to pur- 

 chase instruments for the exploring expedition which the 

 Government had decided to send out, and Lieutenant 

 Hitchcock was placed in charge of the depot during his 

 absence. 



On the 10th of November of that year, Lieut. James M. L1eat . j. Mt 

 Gilliss was ordered to the depot as assistant; and in theL-^^wnkes^ 

 spring of 1837, on the detachment of Lieutenant Wilkes, he relief - 

 became its superintendent. (Memoir of the Founding of 

 the U. S. Naval Observatory, Prof. J. E. Nourse, U. S. N., 

 p. 14.) 



