Figure 3.—Eyepiece and tripod head of the Holcomb reflecting telescope shown in figure 2. (Smithsonian photo 11000)
Figure 4.—Transit telescope (USNM 310599) made by Amasa Holcomb. The aperture is 1½ inches, length 21 inches, and axis 14 inches. It lacks the original support. (Smithsonian photo 43472-c)
II. Henry Fitz, 1808-1863
Julia Fitz Howell
Henry Fitz died suddenly through an accident in 1863, when he was in his 55th year. His widow closed his shop in New York City and moved the equipment to Southold, Long Island, where it was used by his son to complete certain contracts in progress. Thereafter it remained essentially as it was until nearly the present time, when the shop was offered to the U.S. National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution by Mrs. Julia Fitz Howell, granddaughter of Fitz. The decision to construct a new Museum of History and Technology made it possible to accept this generous offer, and the complicated project of transferring the shop and reassembling it was accomplished in 1957 through the assistance of Mr. L. C. Eichner.[13]
Although a few duplicate items were eliminated, the shop is essentially complete, including such items as Fitz’s account books, the small rouge box he used to polish lenses in the course of a walk, and his door key. Through the assistance of Mr. Eichner and Mr. Arthur V. A. Fitz the Smithsonian has obtained a comet-seeker telescope and Fitz’s first instrument, a small draw telescope.
The following biographical sketch was written by Mrs. Howell on the basis of papers in the possession of the family.
Henry Fitz, inventor and telescope maker, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on December 31, 1808. Little is known of his mother, Susan Page Fitz, except that she was probably of Scottish ancestry. His father, Henry Fitz, Sr., was a hatter by trade and the youngest son of Mark Fitz, who for several years represented his city in the Massachusetts General Court.