Globes

A schoolroom globe, its oceans faded to the color of weak tea. Antique and vintage terrestrial globes here come from the United States, Germany, France, England, Hungary and Czechia, from 19th century paper on plaster to mid-century illuminated glass. The oldest include a Hungarian globe of about 1868 and a Paris globe of about 1885. Chicago, long a mapmaking town, appears with a globe dated 1914 and a Rand McNally illuminated globe of 1961 with design credited to Edward Wormley.

Illuminated globes from Indianapolis, Berlin and Munich glow from within, one on a serpent base. Lithographed tin globes by J. Chein and others carry months, seasons and zodiac signs on their bases, and tin globe banks once taught saving and geography together. Glass globe paperweights, one from Tiffany & Co., round things out. Put a globe on a library table or a desk by a window and spin it now and then. The borders have changed; the globe has not been told.