Artist

Alvan Clark

born Ashfield, MA 1804-died Cambridge, MA 1887
Also known as
  • Alvin Clark
Born
Ashfield, Massachusetts, United States
Died
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Biography

Alvan Clark trained as a copper engraver and was a self-taught painter. He opened a studio in Boston in 1836, but thanks to his son’s science experiments in school, became interested in grinding lenses for telescopes. In 1844 he and two of his sons opened their own business, and became the leading American manufacturers of telescopes. The Clark Refracting Telescope is still highly regarded, and in 1897, Clark made what is still the largest refracting telescope in the world: a forty-inch refractor with a sixty-foot-long telescope tube, installed at the Yerkes Observatory, in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.

Works by this artist (5 items)

Karen Kunc, Realm of the Ellipse, 1985, woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Jonathan and Evelyn Gold, 2004.17.2, © 1985, Karen Kunc
Realm of the Ellipse
Date1985
woodcut on paper
Not on view
Karen Kunc, Quarter Section, 1985, woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Jonathan and Evelyn Gold, 2004.17.1, © 1985, Karen Kunc
Quarter Section
Date1985
woodcut on paper
Not on view
Voyage
Date1986
color woodcut on paper
Not on view
Karen Kunc, Star Standing, Air Wheeling, Dust Deviling, 1987, color woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1989.61A-B, © 1987, Karen Kunc
Star Standing, Air Wheeling, Dust Deviling
Date1987
color woodcut on paper
Not on view