| Artist |
Isaiah Lukens |
| Date |
c. 1840 |
| Description |
For over a century, members and visitors at The Athenaeum have commented on Isaiah Lukens's towering clock that dominates the News Room. In 1897 the following inscription was placed on the interiors of the case door:
"This clock was made by Isaiah Lukens, a well-known clockmaker of about fifty years ago, for the Philadelphia Bank, where it remained until the bank removed, June 30, 1859, from the old building at the S.W. corner of Chestnut and Fourth Streets, to its present quarters, when it was exposed at public sale by M Thomas & Sons, Auctioneers, and bought by Henry Bird, Librarian of The Athenaeum, for twenty-three dollars."
The clock towers 13' high and has a great carved hood door and carved scrolls supporting the hood. This clock can be found in the News Room (now the Busch Room) on the second floor at the Athenaeum.
Isaiah Lukens (1779-1846) was the son of Seneca Lukens, a farmer and clockmaker of Horsham, Pennsylvania, who established himself as a clock and watchmaker in Philadelphia after several years' study in England and France. Isaiah Lukens was considered one of Pennsylvania's most ingenious craftsmen. He made clocks for the Second Bank of the United States, the Pennsylvania State House and Independence Hall. Lukens was a man of many interests also gained recognition for his study of the methods of tempering steel, the invention of an instrument what later became the speedometer. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and a founder of the Franklin Institute.
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| Dimensions |
H-176 inches |
| Object ID |
AP.38.01 |
| Object Name |
Clock, Tall Case |
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