Recent Acquisition
Manufacturer: Andrew Ross, London, UK (1843)
Source: Purchase
Artefact #: 2009.0088

The microscope is a very rare artifact for the period having been used by a woman naturalist in the colonies, while accompanying her husband on his surveying and military missions. It is a portable microscope used by Caroline Estcourt Bucknall (1809-1886) (born Caroline Pole Carew), wife of a British officer, James Bucknall Bucknall Estcourt (1802-1855). Bucknall Escourt was posted to the Canadian colonies in the 1830s and 1840s. Caroline was an amateur naturalist of some note and a painter. Some of her graphic collections are preserved at the Library and Archives Canada including portraits, sporting scenes, landscapes and her journal.

It is also a significant microscope from 1843, incorporating one of the earliest commercial, portable achromatic lens systems (serial no. 68) made by the well-known instrument maker, Andrew Ross of London. Because of its colourful provenance and technical significance, it is one the most important optical microscopes in the collection.