This is a rectangular case with a black leather or faux-leather cover. There is a leather or faux-leather handle on the top, and a metal latch at the front. The lid of the case is hinged by leather at the back. Inside, the case is lined with a mustard-yellow surface. Fitted perfectly inside the case there is a varnished wooden box. The lid of this box lifts off to reveal the box is divided by wooden plates into four compartments of equal size. These are likely sized to hold slides or plates of 3″x3″ size.
Accession Number: 2019.ast.210 (DAA-0130)
Alternative Name:
Leather or Plastic, Wood, Metal: Iron Alloy
Engraved on the latch: “EAGLE LOCK CO.
TERRYVILLE CONN.”
Handwritten on the interior of the lid: “R. K. Young”
Dimensions (cm): Height = 17, Width = 12.2, Length = 26.
This box is likely for the safekeeping of slides or photographic plates.
Excellent: The exterior of the case is dusty but in very good condition. The leather/faux-leather is worn around the rim, especially on the front left corner of the bottom of the case, and the corresponding corner of the lid. The box is in excellent condition with no signs of use. On the left side of the box’s lid, the yellow interior of the case has adhered to the varnish, leaving small yellow patches along this edge, and damaging the yellow interior.
Associated Instruments:
Manufacturer:
Date of Manufacture: c. 1930s-1950s
This box was kept at the David Dunlap Observatory until 2009. Upon the sale of the Observatory, it was moved to the University of Toronto’s Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the St George Campus. In 2017 it was moved to a new storage location in McLennan Physical Laboratories.
This box apparently belonged to Reynold K. Young (1886-1977), who was director of the David Dunlap Observatory from 1935 until 1945.
Historical Notes:
Themes: