Time and Time Again

Time and Time Again
How Science and Culture Shape the Past, Present, and Future
Sara J. Schechner
David P. Wheatland Curator
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Harvard University
2014 PRESIDENT & FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
2014 President and Fellows of Harvard College

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods,
without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Publisher
Harvard University
Science Center 371
1 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
chsi.harvard.edu
ISBN 978-0-9644329-1-8 (ebook-PDF)
ISBN 978-0-9644329-2-5 (iBook)
Picture Credits
Cover: Time and Time Again exhibition poster
designed by Samantha van Gerbig, 2013, Collection of
Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University.
Title page: Invention of Clockwork, unknown engraver,
after Stradanus (Jan van der Straet), from Nova reperta,
c. 1599-1603. www.wikigallery.org.
Epigraph and postscript endpapers: Valentino Pini,
Fabrica de glhorologi solari (Venice, 1598).
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library,
f IC5 P6555 598f fols. 20, 26.
Contents: Trilobite, Paradoxides (Acadoparadoxides)
harlani, Middle Cambrian period, Hayward Creek,
Braintree, Massachusetts. President and Fellows of
Harvard College, Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University, Invertebrate Paleontology
Collection, MCZ 190330.
Acknowledgments: Foundation peg, Mesopotamian,
UR III Period (c. 21st 20th century BCE).
Harvard Semitic Museum, 1899.2.625.
Chapter title page: Otto van Veen, Quinti Horatii

Flacci emblemata (Antwerp, 1612), detail. Houghton
Library, Harvard College Library, Typ 630 12.867 (A).
/ Middlesex Canal workers time records, 1797, detail.
Time Records, 1797-1823. Baldwin Family Business
Records: Canal Papers. Baker Library, Harvard Business
School. / Replica of the Aztec Sun Stone preserved in
Mexicos National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico,
pre-1902, detail. President and Fellows of Harvard
College, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology, Harvard University, PM# 02-42-20/C3123
(digital file# 99110009). Gift of George B. Pitcher, 1902.
Chapter opening: Compass sundial, Jacobus de Steur,
Leiden, c. 1675, lunar volvelle detail. Collection of
Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University.
Other images are credited

on the pages where they appear.
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;

In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs.
Philip James Bailey
Festus. Scene. A Country TownMarket-placeNoon
Contents
Acknowledgments .................................................................... 7
Introduction ................................................................................. 10
Chapter 1
Creation of Time ........................................................................ 13
Western Time .............................................................................

Big Bang ...........................................................................
Mythic Time ............................................................................
Deep Time ...............................................................................
Time Markers of Nature and Man ............................
14
19
22
24
25
Chapter 2
Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars ............ 27
Natural Time ..........................................................................

Sundials .............................................................................
Astrolabe ...........................................................................
Nocturnals ........................................................................
Moon Dials .......................................................................
Difference between Clocks and Sundials .....................
28
31
39
42
44
47
Chapter 3
50
52
60
62
63
65
68
69
71
72
75
78
Chapter 4

What is an Hour?........................................................................ 89
Chapter 6
Timekeeping.................................................................................. 97
Calendars ............................................................................... 98
Book of Hours ................................................................ 102
Almanacs ........................................................................ 103
Planners and Diaries ................................................... 107
Give us back our eleven days! .............................. 112
Ephemerides .................................................................. 114
Calendars and Culture ............................................... 115
Sand Glasses ........................................................................ 118
Interval Timers ..................................................................... 124
Clocks and Watches ........................................................... 128
Evolution of the Watch ............................................... 130
Why do the hours run clockwise on clocks? ..... 139
Sundials Regulate Clocks .......................................... 140
Equation of Time .......................................................... 145
Biological Clocks ................................................................. 148
Chapter 7
Time Flow........................................................................................ 48
Cyclical Time ..........................................................................

Perpetual Calendars ......................................................
Cyclical Time in Hopi Culture......................................
Bachs Circles ...................................................................
Linear Time .............................................................................
Father Time over Time....................................................
Mozarts Arrows................................................................
The Ages of Man.............................................................
Carry Your Navel .................................................
Coming of Age ........................................................
Time Reversal .........................................................................
Relative Time ..........................................................................
Chapter 5
What Does Time Look Like?.................................................. 81

Which Came First: The Chicken or the Egg?................ 82
Time as a Series ..................................................................... 86
Atomic Time................................................................................ 154

Uses of Atomic Time .......................................................... 156
Chapter 8
In Time Together ...................................................................... 158
Dance, Drill, and Timed Movement .............................. 159

Musical Tempo ..................................................................... 163
Timetables ............................................................................. 165
Sacred Time .......................................................................... 168
Gentlemen, Synchronize Your Watches..................... 173
Chapter 9
Business of Time ...................................................................... 176
William Bond & Son ........................................................... 177

Workshop Tools ............................................................. 178
Bond & Son Awards .................................................... 181
American Watch Company of Waltham ...................... 183
Swiss Knock-Offs ........................................................... 193
Ledger of Watch Repairs .................................................. 195
Watchmakers Tradecard.................................................... 197
Time And Time Again Contents
Contents
Chapter 1 0
Chapter 1 4
Time and Labor ................................................................... 199

Time is Money ...................................................................... 205
Mesopotamian Monthly Expenses ......................... 207
Daylight Saving and War Time ...................................... 208
Domestic Time Management .......................................... 210
Portable Sundials ................................................................ 248

Diverse German Fashions........................................... 250
Make Way for Ducklings............................................. 257
Diptych Sundials for Savvy Travelers .................... 260
Single-Latitude Sundials for Stay-at-Home Folks ........ 264
Bird of a political feather.................................................. 267
Time on your hands ........................................................... 268
I can see you now ............................................................... 269
Work Time ................................................................................... 198
Chapter 11
Time Out ..................................................................................... 215

The Coffee Break ................................................................ 216
Bedouin Hospitality ..................................................... 217
Take Five for Music.............................................................. 222
Chapter 1 2

Time Stopped and Preserved.............................................. 224

The Photograph and the Phonograph ......................... 225
Chronophotography ........................................................... 229
Time in a Jar.......................................................................... 230
Engineering Students Attempt to Arrest Time........... 231
Chapter 1 3
Mathematics and the Art of Time .................................. 232
Polyhedral Sundials ............................................................ 233

Scenes of Virtue .................................................................. 238
Foreign Time ......................................................................... 243
Time on the Road .................................................................... 247
Chapter 1 5
Timelines of History .............................................................. 270
Chapter 1 6

Time and Personal Memory................................................ 278

Journals .................................................................................. 279
Notches on a Cheyenne Hide Flesher........................... 281
Chapter 1 7
The End of Time ....................................................................... 283

For Time to End Seems Both
Impossible and Inevitable ............................................... 284
Death Comes A-Knocking ................................................ 293
Time And Time Again Contents
Acknowledgments
Curator
Sara J. Schechner
Design
Samantha van Gerbig
Designer & Photographer
Noam Andrews
Wheatland Curatorial Fellow
Time Trails
eCatalog
Cira Louise Brown
In collaboration with
Harvard Museums of Science and Culture
Support generously provided by

David P. Wheatland Charitable Trust
Provostial Fund Committee for the
Arts and Humanities, Harvard University
Anonymous Donor
Juan Andres Leon

Komal Ashraf Syed
Time And Time Again Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the staff of the following institutions who
kindly lent items and offered guidance
Arthur and ElizabethSchlesingerLibrary
on the History of Women in America,
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Baker Library Historical Collections,

Harvard Business School
Harvard University Herbaria and the

Botany Libraries
Center for Geographic Analysis,

Harvard University
Harvard University Information Technology

Infrastructure / Network Services
Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library,

Harvard University
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Fine Arts Library,

Harvard College Library
Harvard Art Museums
Harvard Map Collection,
Harvard College Library
Harvard Planning and Project Management
Museum of Comparative Zoology,

President and Fellows of Harvard College
Peabody Museum of Archaeology
and Ethnology, Harvard University
Semitic Museum, Harvard University
and several private collectors
Acknowledgments
Recognition of the Unstinting Support of the Collection of
Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University
Peter Galison
Samantha van Gerbig
Pellegrino University Professor and

Faculty Director
Photographer & Designer
Jean-Franois Gauvin
Technology and Applications Coordinator
Administrative Director
Sara J. Schechner
Martha Richardson
Michael Kelley
Juan Andres Leon
Database Project Manager
Richard Wright
Curatorial Technician
Collections Manager and Registrar
Sara Frankel
Collections Assistant
W ith assistance from and thanks to

Lisa Crystal, Laura Neuhaus,
Kate Womersley, Nasser Zakariya
as planners and content advisors
Maria Stenzel
for her escapement video
Yao Li
for permission to use his time-lapse film of Boston
Dale Parker, Advanced Imaging,

for graphics production technical advice
Daina Yurkus, Light This!

for lighting focus
David Ellis
former interim Executive Director of HMSC,
for agreeing to make Time an HMSC initiative
Introduction
Time and Time Again
How Science and Culture Shape the Past, Present, and Future
Time and Time Again

Time: We find it, keep it,
measure it, obey it, rely on it,
waste it, save it, chop it, and try
to stop it. We organize our lives
around it, and yet, do we really
know what time is?
Workers punching time clock upon returning

to work after a labor dispute
Automobile Industry Labor Disputes Photographs, c. 1937.
General File Photograph Collection.
Baker Library, Harvard Business School
Introduction
Drawing upon collections in

Harvards scientific, historical,
archaeological, anthropological,
and natural history museums
and libraries, this exhibition
explores the answers given to
that question in various ages
by different world cultures and
disciplines.
Time and Time Again
11
Themes will include time finding

from nature and time keeping by
human artifice. We will explore
cultural beliefs about the creation
and end of time, the flow of time,
and personal time as marked by
rites of passage. We will take time
out and examine the power of
keeping time together in music,
dance, work, and faith. We will
explore times representation in
history and objects of personal
memory, its personification in art,
and its expression in biological
change and the geological
transformations of our planet.
Time: It is a riddle to perplex a
Sphinx. Clock yourself in, and
enjoy the puzzle.
Manual time clock
In exhibition gallery
Introduction
Time and Time Again
12
Chapter 1
Creation of Time
Did time have a beginning or did it always exist?
The answer depends on ones culture and cosmology.
Western Time
The ancient Greeks in the Orphic
tradition believed that Chronos
(Time), was self-formed in the
creation. With his consort Ananke
(Inevitability), he encircled and
hatched the world-egg, thereby
forming the earth, sea, and sky.
Later personified as Aion (Eternity),
he turned the wheel of heaven.
Aion (Eternity) supports the zodiac

while Gaia (Earth) reclines
Detail of large floor mosaic from a Roman villa
in Sentinum, 200-250 CE
Staatliche Antikensammlung und Glyptothek, Munich
Gl. 504 WAF
Wikimedia Commons
Chapter 1: Creation of Time
Jews, Christians, and Muslims began

with the Book of Genesis, but still
had questions. Did God create the
universe in time, or did he have to
create time and space first? The
debate was settled for Catholics
in 1215 at the Fourth Lateran
Council: God created everything
simultaneously out of nothing.
Western Time
14
Medieval Bibles often showed

God with a pair of dividers,
creating the world through an act
of measurement. This idea came
from Platonic texts.
Citing the ancient Greeks, many
also believed that the planets were
in specific zodiacal constellations
at the moment of creation.
Thema mundi charts perpetuated
this view. One consequence was
the timing of the start of the year.
Those Mediterranean cultures
that thought the Sun was in Aries
when the universe was created
started their religious year at the
spring equinox.
God as creator of the world, Book of Genesis

Bible Moralise, French, 1250-1300
sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Codex 1179
Wikimedia Commons
(on following page)
Thema mundi chart depicting the order of the

planets at the time of creation
Joseph Grnpeck, Ein hubscher Tractat von dem Ursprung
des bosen Franzos, das man nennet die wilden Wartzen:
auch ein Regime[n]t und ware Ertzenney mit Salben und
Gedranck, wie man sich regiren soll in diser Zeyt
(Nuremberg: Kaspar Hochfeder, 1496 or 1497).
Boston Medical Library in the
Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine,
Ballard 355
Western Time
15
Western Time
In 1617 Robert Fludd startled readers by depicting the moment before creation as
a black square surrounded on four sides by the phrase, et sic in infinitum.
Blackness ad infinitum
Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et
minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia
(Oppenheim, 1617).
EC F6707 B638p v.1
Western Time
17
Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Stars

Jan Sadeler the Elder, Flemish, print, c. 1550-1600,
after Maerten de Vos (1532-1603)
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum
Gift of Belinda L. Randall from the collection of John Witt Randall
W 8, H 13, R4876
Imaging Department President and Fellows of Harvard College
Western Time
18
Big Bang
In the late 1920s, physicist George Lematre developed a physical model of an
expanding universe. His mathematical equations did not require a beginning to time
or space. In 1931, he changed his mind. From the point of view of quantum theory,
the beginning of the world could not resemble the present order of nature. Time and
space would break down.
Lematres new model of a primeval atom that fragmented and evolved is the first big
bang model of the creation of the universe. In 1948, George Gamow would propose
his own version in the famous Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper. The initial universe was
a compressed gas of neutrons. As it rapidly expanded, the neutrons decayed into
protons and electrons, which then combined with ambient neutrons to form heavier
atoms.
Todays cosmological models are more nuanced and take into account the actions
of the four forces of nature and subatomic particles like quarks. They still begin,
however, with the entire universe compressed into an infinitely dense and hot point
before creation when space and time did not exist.
For physicists, time began with the big bang about 13.7 billion years ago.
(on following pages)
George Lematre
A Homogeneous Universe of Constant Mass and
Increasing Radius accounting for the Radial Velocity
of Extra-galactic Nebulae, Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society, 91 (1931): 483-490.
Ralph Alpher, Hans Bethe, and George Gamow

The Origin of Chemical Elements, Physical Review,
73 (1948): 803-804.
Big Bang
19
1931MNRAS..91
Mythic Time
Native people in North America
share a belief in mythic time. They
believe that time has no beginning
or end, and their universe is
unlimited and exists perpetually.
According to the cosmology of the
Algonkian- and Iroquian-speaking
people from the eastern Great
Lakes north through the eastern
Woodlands, the universe has three
parts. The earth floats like an
island between an upper, sky world
and an underworld, each ruled by
powerful manitous or spirits. Chief
among these are the thunderbirds
and underwater panthers. They are
engaged in perpetual conflict.
Underwater panthers
Mans pouch with underwater panthers
and images of whirlpools
Possibly Southeastern Ojibwa, Great Lakes region,
1810-1850
President and Fellows of Harvard College,
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology,
Harvard University, PM# 987-16-10/71168
(digital file# 99110017). Gift of Mrs. James Dudley Hawks, II,
in memory of her husband, James Dudley Hawks II,
Harvard Class of 1943, 1987.
Mythic Time
22
Thunderbirds rule the upper world, causing good rain and victory, but also bad
storms. Their power is matched in the underworld by the panthers, cat-like beings
with horned heads and long tails. The underwater panthers use their tails to whip
up the waters and cause drowning, but also are the source of waters healing and lifeprolonging powers.
Adorned with images of the thunderbird and underwater panther, the two bags shown
here attach these sacred symbols to earth-bound materials.
Thunderbirds
Twined fiber, panel bag, perhaps used
to store sacred bundles
Possibly Southeastern Ojibwa, Great Lakes region,
1800-1820
Harvard University, PM# 03-20-10/62493
(digital file# 99110018). Museum Purchase, 1903.
Mythic Time
23
Deep Time
This slab of trilobite fossils was excavated in Braintree, Massachusetts. Others like
them are currently found in Morocco, western Europe, and Scandinavia. The fossils
are evidence that these lands were once joined together as a small continent (called
Avalonia by geologists) in the geologic period that the trilobites livedsome 510
million years ago (Middle Cambrian). Over the next 200 million years, the tectonic
plate carrying Avalonia got sandwiched between Europe, America, and Africa forming
the supercontinent Pangaea. When Europe and Africa broke away from North
America, parts of Avalonia were left in each.
Trilobite, Paradoxides
(Acadoparadoxides) harlani
Middle Cambrian period
Hayward Creek, Braintree, Massachusetts
Harvard University, Invertebrate
Paleontology Collection, MCZ 190330
Deep Time
24
Time Markers of
Nature and Man
Rudists were invertebrate animals living in shallow waters from the Late Jurassic to the
Late Cretaceous period (145 to 65 million years ago). They dominated reefs until the
Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction event wiped them out along with the dinosaurs.
Today their remains serve as index fossilsguides to the age of the rocks in which they
are preserved.
Rudist fossil, Hippurites radiosus

Perigueux, France
Turonian stage, Upper Cretaceous period
Harvard University, Invertebrate
Paleontology Collection, MCZ 134179
Time Markers of Nature and Man
25
This other time marker is manmade. It is a clay peg that was inserted 4000 years
ago into the foundation of a building as an act of piety and expression of a rulers
achievements.
Foundation peg with dedication from the

ruler of Lagash, Gudea, to the god Ningirsu
Mesopotamian, UR III Period
(c. 21st 20th century BCE)
Harvard Semitic Museum, 1899.2.625
Time Markers of Nature and Man
26
Chapter 2
Time Finding from the
Sun, Moon, and Stars
The earliest methods for tracking the time
were observations of the sun, moon, and stars.
Natural Time
The alternation of light and dark
defined the day. The 29 day cycle
of lunar phases days gave us the
month. The suns return to the same
constellation in the sky gave us the
year.
Barritt-Serviss star and planet finder, 40N

Leon Barritt and Garrett P. Serviss, New York, 1906
The average person was aware of time

from these natural cycles, but had no
reason to subdivide the day or night
into smaller units. That need arose
from astronomers and priests who
devised instruments to find the time
more precisely for calendrical and
ritual purposes.
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,

Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland
DW0650
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars
Natural Time
28
Portable orrery
Peter & John Dollond, London, c. 1787
DW0701
(on next page)
Moon calendar 2013

Celestial Products
Concord, North Carolina, 2012
Natural Time
29
Sundials
Every day the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. All sundials use the suns
apparent motionup and down, east to west, or a combination of both called the hour
angle, which measures the suns motion along the celestial equator. Sundials find the
time by sighting on the sun or using a shadow cast by an object, called a gnomon.
The familiar garden sundial finds time by the suns hour angle. So do mathematically
similar dials where the shadow-casting edge of the gnomon is parallel to the earths axis.
Horizontal garden sundial

Benjamin Martin, London, c. 1760
Harvard University,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7879
Self-aligning equatorial dial

Jacob Moler, Germany, 18th century
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, 1985
7122
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Sundials
31
The earliest sundials, however, were altitude dials. The Egyptians invented one type by
1500 BCE and later types were scaphes, pillar dials, ring dials, and horary quadrants.
Egyptian altitude sundialan early but wrong hypothesis!

Today we know that Egyptian shadow clocks from the time of King
Tut were L-shaped and had no cross-bar. However, in 1910-1920
noted Egyptologist, Ludwig Burchardt reasoned that they did, leading
to erroneous models in many museum collections.
R. T. Gunther, Oxford, England, c. 1930
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University,
Gillingham Collection, Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7313
32
Pillar dial
European, 18 century
th

Harvard University, Gillingham Collection,
7178
Horary quadrant on ivory

astronomical compendium
A. Andr, Paris, 1642
Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7498
33
Globe dial
Japanese, 19th century
Harvard University,
7395
34
Armillary dial with analemma
Polyhedral dial
French, c. 1880
German and English, 19th century

Harvard University
7802

7801
35
Pair of ring dials

European, 17th century
Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland, 1985
7128 and 7132
36
Scaphe
H. Schmeisser and A. Meissner,
Berlin, 1861
7396
37
Vertical plate dial

Italian, mid-19th century
7314
38
Astrolabe
The astrolabe, invented in the fourth century, not only used the altitude of the sun or
stars to find time to a few minutes, but could do this at any latitude.
Planispheric astrolabe (front and back)

Joannes Bos, Antwerp, 1597 (19th century copy)
DW0595
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Astrolabe
39
Planispheric astrolabe (front)

Fuchs, Germany, 1577

DW0593
Planispheric astrolabe (back)

Fuchs, Germany, 1577

DW0593
Nocturnals
Nocturnals find time from the stars. They use the rotation of key stars around the
celestial North Pole like the hands of a clock. When Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are
used, the nocturnal may be marked for Both Bears. These constellations are better
known to us as the Big and Little Dippers.
(above)
Man using a nocturnal

European 16th century woodcut
Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum,
Chicago, Webster Institute Collections
(at left)
Nocturnal on an ivory
astronomical compendium
Flemish, Antwerp, 1599
Harvard University,
7527
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Nocturnals
42
Nocturnal for Both Bears

Marked SAMVEL MASON IS A KNAVE
I.R. [John Rowley?], England, c. 1680
7316
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Nocturnals
43
Moon Dials
Sundials can be used to find the time by bright moonlight. For this purpose, the
sundial will have a rotating disk that can be set for the moons age and phase.
This volvelle tells the user how many hours the moon is behind the sun in the sky
information needed to correct the reading of the shadow.
Ivory compass sun and moon dial

B.R., Germany, c. 1700
7258
Moon Dials
44
Oval ivory diptych with moon dial (shown open)

Hans Ducher II or Hans Ducher III, Nuremberg, c. 1585
Harvard University, Ernst Collection of Sundials,
Transferred from the Harvard College Observatory, 1964
7830
Oval ivory diptych with moon dial

(cover showing volvelle to set age of moon)
Hans Ducher II or Hans Ducher III, Nuremberg, c. 1585
7830
Difference between Clocks and Sundials

Clocks do not find time from
astronomical observations, like
sundials do. They can only measure
time from a given starting point.
This teaching model of a Graham,
dead-beat clock escapement was
used at Harvard College in the early
19th century.
Graham (dead-beat) escapement model

Used for teaching at Harvard College
for over 100 years
William Mason Stiles, London, 1839-1850
Harvard University
1994-1-0012
Difference between
Clocks and Sundials
47
Chapter 3
Time Flow
How does time flow?
Forward, back , in circles, uniformly?
Time Flow
Repetitive phenomena in nature
the waxing and waning of the moon,
the progression of day and night, the
cycle of the seasons, and rising and
setting of the starspromote the
view that time is cyclical and never
ending. Other facts of lifethe
aging process, for instancesupport
the view that time is linear and has a
direction. The past gives way to the
present, which yields to the future.
Our modern society embraces both
the cyclical and linear aspects of
timethe cyclical in our celebration
of recurring holidays, and the linear
in our schooling and professional
advancement.
Science, literature, and the arts
give us examples of time stretched,
compressed, and reversed.
Vertical disk sundial
French, 17th century
7318
Chapter 3: Time Flow
49
Cyclical Time
Traditional rural societies tend to view time as cyclical. Daily life is governed by the
rhythms of agriculture, circadian periods, and recurring natural events such as days,
seasons, cycles of birth and death, and regular bodily urges. Church time, like agrarian
time, is also cyclical. It is built on the recurrence of holy days and the rhythms of
prayer.
Images of cyclical time often show a winged youth holding a sundial or the Greek
god Aion supporting the circular zodiac. They portray the march of the seasons as a
circuit tread by infant, young, middle-aged, and elder males. Another ancient symbol
is the ouroboros, a snake biting its tail, and the motto Finis ab origine pendet (the end
depends on the beginning).
Cyclical Time
50
As soone, as wee to bee, begunne;

We did beginne, to be Vndone.
Emblem with ouroboros
George Wither, A Collection of Emblemes,
ancient and moderne: Quickened vvith
metracial illustrations, both morall and
divine: and disposed into lotteries, that
instruction, and good counsell, may bee
furthered by an honest and pleasant
Recreation (London, 1635).
f STC 25900
And the seasons they go

round and round
Emblem showing march of seasons with an
ouroboros and butterfly boy
Otto van Veen, Quinti Horatii Flacci
emblemata (Antwerp, 1612).
Typ 630 12.867 (A)
Cyclical Time
51
Perpetual Calendars
Perpetual calendars take
advantage of the cyclical nature
of our annual calendar. Some
are mathematical tables, and
others are mechanical devices
with rotating disks called volvelles.
Both kinds enable the days of the
week to be matched up with the
days of each month. Many also
offer information on the average
length of daylight or darkness in
a given month, the dates the sun
enters each zodiacal sign, and
times of festivals.
Mother-of-pearl perpetual calendar to set on a desk

French, c. 1850.
7271
Perpetual Calendars
52
Perpetual calendar invented by

Samuel Morland (top) on a portable
magnetic azimuth sundial
Charles Bloud, Dieppe, c. 1660
Harvard University, Ernst Collesction of Sundials,
Transferred from the
Harvard College Observatory, 1964
7897
Perpetual Calendars
53
Perpetual calendar on a
pocket compass dial
Jacobus de Steur, Leiden, c. 1675
7256
Top of cover showing Dominical letters

(telling which days will be Sundays in
years beginning 1672); suns place in
the zodiac for each month; lengths of
day and night at that time of the year;
times of sunrise and sunset.
Horizontal sundial mounted over a

magnetic compass.
Inside of cover showing weekday for

every date in the calendar.
Lunar volvelle showing phases of the

moon every day of lunar month; how
many hours the moon is ahead of the
sun (for using the sundial by moonlight); and aspects of the planets.
Perpetual calendar on a pocket

equatorial dial
Augsburg, c. 1700
7049
Perpetual Calendars
55
Perpetual calendar on top and bottom

of an aide memoire
The owner can write notes in pencil on the ivory leaves.
German, c. 1700
7276
Perpetual Calendars
56
Perpetual calendar in almanac book form

The Shakspeare Calendar (Athens, Georgia, 1849).
Schechner Collection
Perpetual Calendars
57
Detail showing saints days during a month (top)

on a cardboard perpetual calendar to mount on
a house wall
Nuremberg, c. 1800
7327
Perpetual Calendars
58
Coin-shaped perpetual calendar

to carry in a pocket
French, c. 1850
Harvard University,
7272
Perpetual Calendars
59
Cyclical Time
in Hopi Culture
For many Native peoples in North Americaparticularly those in agricultural
societiestime flows in a never-ending circle. Rituals related to mythological beings
are performed cyclically in order to maintain balance in the universe. Experiences in
time are grounded in repetition and renewal, in opposition to the linear western sense
of unfolding changes.
The Hopi people believe that benevolent spirit beings, katsinam, visit them for half of
every year. The katsinam begin to arrive from the spirit world at the winter solstice
in late December, and depart in July after the summer solstice. Hopi men costume
themselves as the katsinam and perform dances and ceremonies during their stay to
offer prayers for health, fertility, and rain. The katsinam accept the prayers and gifts
from the Hopi and carry them back to the gods.
Hopi katsina dolls are wooden effigies of the spirit beings. They are given to babies of
both sexes, girls near marriageable age, and women during the ceremonies and dances.
The dolls are treasured and hung inside the home to promote their wellbeing and that
of the family.
(image of katsina dolls on following page)
Cyclical Time in Hopi Culture
60
(first, from left)
(third, from left)
Leenang, the flute katsina with squash

blossoms on his head
Sio Salako katsina with a feathered skirt
He appears in December to bring rain, health,

and good harvests.
Hopi, Arizona, pre-1892
He performs in the January winter social dances

to bring rain.
(second, from left)
(fourth, from left)
Salakwmana katsina with a headdress

representing clouds and the rainbow
Pawtiwa, the Zuni sun god and a kastina

chief, brings rain and mist in Hopi culture
She may arrive in January with Sio Salako,

and dances with her brother in midsummer.
He performs in January.

Harvard University, PM# 45-25-10/28863,
45-25-10/28830, 45-25-10/28823,
45-25-10/28877 (digital file# 99110016).
Gift of the Estate of Mary Hemenway, 1945.
Cyclical Time in Hopi Culture
61
Bachs Circles
The fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach are said to go in circles. Musical elements
overlap and return on each other.
Fugue for two harpsichords

Johann Sebastian Bach, Fuga duo
Clavechimbalorum, Die Kunst der Fuge
(Zurich, c. 1802).
Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, Harvard College Library,
Merritt Room Mus 627.1.410.1
Bachs Circles
62
Linear Time
City dwellers and merchants are
more prone to scheduling than
their rural counterparts. Beginning
in the 14th century as feudal
society gave way to more urban,
commercial centers, time became
seen as a precious commodity
to be budgeted and spent wisely.
Petrarch and educational reformers
urged people to multitask and
organize activities carefully.
Otherwise they would die without
achieving any good.
The new time pressures reinforced
the linear sense of time.
Mementi mori, images that
reminded people of their hastening
death, served as moral goads.
Sands of time
Sand glass
Italian? c. 1760
7301
Linaer Time
63
Deaths one long-Sleepe; and, Lifes no more,

But one short-Watch, an houre before.
Memento mori showing sand glass topped by watch
escapement, alongside a candle and a woman.
George Wither, A Collection of Emblemes, ancient and
moderne: Quickened vvith metracial illustrations, both
morall and divine: and disposed into lotteries, that
instruction, and good counsell, may bee furthered by an
honest and pleasant Recreation (London, 1635).
f STC 25900
Father Time over Time

Artists depicted Chronos or
Time in Petrarchs day as an
elder man carried on a litter.
By the Renaissance, he was an
inescapable force causing ruin
or decay. This ruthless old man
now carried a lethal instrument,
a scythe to cut down anything
in his path. Wings symbolized
his fleeting nature. A sandglass
or clock escapement signaled
the unstoppable course. This
Father Time kept company
with death. Curiously by the
end of the 19th century, this
fierce representation became
domesticated into the amiable
and feeble Father Time figure
we know today.
Time as an old man with wings and crutches

Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), Triumph of Time, manuscript
created by Matre des Entres de Claude de France, c. 1500
Bibliothque Nationale de France, Fr. 12423
Wikimedia Commons
65
Time in a chariot of clock and sundial parts,

bringing ruin in his wake
Engraving to illustrate Petrarchs Triumph of Time
Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), print designer,
and Philips Galle (1537-1612), engraver and publisher,
Antwerp, c. 1565.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Courtesy of Koninklijke Bibliotheek /
The Memory of the Netherlands,
and Wikimedia Commons
Time as a deadly menace cutting down

the arts and sciences
Otto van Veen, Quinti Horatii Flacci emblemata
(Antwerp, 1612).
Typ 630 12.867 (A)
Father Time
Bryant Baker, The Old and the New, Puck, 28
December 1910
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
AP101.P7 1910 (Case X) [P&P]
67
Mozarts Arrows
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts works are very goal-directed. They tell a story and build
to a climax.
Missa brevis in D major

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Missa ex D a 4. vocibus
ordinariis, 2. violinis, con organo
& violoncello (Augsburg, 1793).
Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library,
Harvard College Library,
Merritt Room Mus 745.1.515.7
BMEO
Mozarts Arrows
68
The Ages of Man

As men and women go through life they pass through different stages between birth
and death. Key moments in time are marked by rites of passage. These rites are
governed by rules that bind the individual to his society. Ceremonies such as baby
naming, confirmation of faith, school graduation, weddings, and funerals celebrate
the distinct stages of life.
The Ages of Man

Bartholomaeus, Anglicus, Le Proprietaire en francoys
(Lyon, 1486).
Inc 8540 (32.5)
The Ages of Man
69
The Life and Age of Woman

Currier and Ives, New York, 1850
Reprint
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute,
Harvard University
Gr13-1
Carry Your Navel

Among the western Sioux during pregnancy, a female relative or the prospective
mother herself made an amulet to hold the newborn babys umbilical cord. The
amulets were shaped as either a lizard (for boys) or turtle (for girls). These animals
were revered as difficult to kill, and so were appropriate guardians against evil and
symbols of longevity. The mother tied the amulet to the frame of the cradleboard so
that it suspended in front of the infant, serving as a toy as well as talisman. When the
child began to walk, the amulet was worn or attached to the clothing. A five- and six
year-old child was called a carry your navel.
Lizard-shaped umbilical amulet

Lakota (western Sioux),
late 19th to early 20th century
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology, Harvard University, PM# 38-4410/12857 (digital file# 99110026).
Gift of Mrs. Henry H. Richardson in memory
of Theodore Jewett Eastman, A.B. 1901,
M.D. 1905, 1938.
Turtle-shaped umbilical amulet

Lakota (western Sioux),
late 19th to early 20th century
Ethnology, Harvard University, PM# 13-4810/85447 (digital file# 99110024).
Museum purchase, Huntington Frothingham
Wolcott Fund, 1913.
Carry Your Navel
71
Coming of Age
Many societies mark the time
of puberty with rituals that
introduce the boy or girl to
shamanistic, professional, or
future adult roles. Ceremonies
and new adornments also
declare the boy or girls
new status to the rest of the
community.
Bayaka boys initiation mask

of Mondo rank (and detail image)
Worn in dances through neighboring
villages by an important boy (10-14 years
old) celebrating the completion of a yearlong bush school, which began with his
circumcision.
Maskmaker Ngonzo, near Munene village,
Bayaka tribe, Kwango River, Congo, 1948
Ethnology, Harvard University,
PM# 49-9-50/7392 (digital file# 99110010,
99110011). Gift of Patrick Putnam, 1949.
Coming of Age
72
Feather headdress and pin

for Pomo boys initiation
(and pin detail image)
Tabate Band,
Northern Pomo, California, pre-1910
Unused example
Ethnology, Harvard University, PM# 10-2110/76455 (digital file# 99110019,
99110020). Gift of Lewis Farlow, 1910.
Coming of Age
73
Pair of silver ankle bracelets given to a Bedouin

girl at puberty and worn for the rest of her life
Palestine, pre-1902
Coming of Age
74
Time Reversal
According to Isaac Newton,
time was absolute and constant
everywhere in the universe.
In classical physics, equations are
also reversible in time. A movie of
billiard balls colliding will
make sense whether played
forward or back.
Absolute time according to Newton

W. J. s Gravesande, An Explanation of
the Newtonian Philosophy (London, 1735).
Time Reversal
75
Our lives, however, do not run in reverse, but legends of a fountain of youth are
common in many cultures.
The fountain of youth

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Der Jungbrunnen,
1546 (detail)
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemldegalerie, 593
Wikimedia Commons
Time Reversal
76
The fountain of youth

Japanese Fairy Tales, Tokyo, c. 1900.
Harvard-Yenching Library of the Harvard College Library,
Harvard University, GR340 .J33 1900zx
Time Reversal
77
Relative Time
Since Einstein presented his
theories of relativity in 1905
and 1916, time and space are
no longer seen as physical
absolutes. They are subject to
forces such as gravity and the
motion of observers relative
to each other. If a bicyclist
carrying a clock raced past
us moving close to the speed
of light, our view from the
sidewalk would show the bicycle
shortened in length and the
clock ticking slowed down.
The cyclist would see his vehicle
and clock running normally.
The Alarm Clock

Theatrical poster for a Federal Theatre Division,
Work Projects Administration production of
The Alarm Clock at the Mason Opera House.
California, Federal Art Project, between 1936 and 1938
POS - WPA - CA .01 .A53, no. 1 (B size) [P&P]
The perception of time

as running slow or fast is
conditioned by our psychology
and society. An hour spent in
Boston traffic is not the same as
an hour at a Celtics game.
Relative Time
78
Relative time for Mr. Tompkins

George Gamow, Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland:
or, Stories of c, G, and h (New York, 1940).
Widener Library, Harvard College Library
Relative Time
Time compression and dilation are also features of artistic productions. A play may
cover a persons entire life in a couple of hours; a slow-motion video may stretch a
second into an hour.
Ten Minute Alibi

Theatrical poster for a Federal Theatre Division,
Work Projects Administration production of the
Ten Minute Alibi at the Waterloo Theater.
Iowa, Federal Art Project, 1936 or 1937
POS - WPA - IOWA .01 .P871, no. 1 (B size) [P&P]
Relative Time
80
Chapter 4
What Does Time Look Like?
When we visualize time, do we think of its cyclical
or linear aspects? Its unfolding but turning back
on itself or its inescapable progression forward?
Which Came First:

the Chicken or the Egg?
The philosophical conundrum of the chicken and egg dates back to Aristotle and
philosophers of the 4th century BCE. It concerns causality and the order of things in
time. Day may give birth to night and night to day metaphorically, but can there be
offspring without parents or vice versa? The chicken-and-egg question has led to
deep thinking about the eternity or creation of the universe.
(above)
Egg, Aves
undated
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University,
Ornithology Collection, MCZ 363126
(at left)
Domestic chicken, Gallus domesticus
Mounted skin, undated
Ornithology Collection, MCZ 363047
Chapter 4: What Does Time Look Like?
Which Came First:

82
The chicken and egg embody

circular aspects of time. Julia
Childs stopwatch, on the other
hand, and her husbands timeline
for an opening sequence in The
French Chef, televisions first
cooking show, embody the linear
aspects of time.
Julia Childs stopwatch

Used by Paul Child or Ruth Lockwood to time
segments of The French Chef
Herwins, Switzerland, c. 1963
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University,
Ruth Lockwood Papers
(on next page)
On time sequence planned for

Julia Childs TV program
Paul Child to Charles Child,
Cambridge, Massachusetts,
26 January 1963
Paul Child Materials 2014.
Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy
and the Culinary Arts. Schlesinger Library,
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University,
Julia Child Papers, MC 644, folder 78
Which Came First:

83
Linking these two is the clock

escapement with its oscillating
pendulum. The swing of the
pendulum in time turns back
on itself but propels the clock
movement to tick out the
minutes in one direction only.
Anchor escapement model

Simon Willard, Roxbury, 1822
Harvard University
1995-1-0007
Which Came First:

85
Time as a Series
Another way to visualize time is as
a progressive series of changes. The
morphological development of a frog
from egg to full-grown adult exhibits
the forward motion of time. So does the
evolution of the oil lamp from the Early
Bronze Age until the modern era.
Archaeologists use found objects
like lamps to date strata in their digs
in the same way that geologists and
paleontologists use index fossils to
date sediments.
Frog development series,

Pelophylax lessonae
Herpetology Collection, MCZ A-136433
(gallery view with oil lamps on following page)
Time as a Series
86
Series of oil lamps

All from the Harvard Semitic Museum
Early Bronze Age, 3150 2300 BCE
1907.64.177
Middle Bronze Age, 2300 1550 BCE

1907.76.65

Late Bronze-Iron Age, 1550 1000 BCE

1905.5.17

Late Iron Age, 1000 586 BCE

1907.64.179

Hellenistic, 332 198 BCE

1907.64.175
Hellenistic (Delphinform), 198 63 BCE

1907.64.203
Ptolemaic Egyptian (with Palmette), 50 BCE 25 CE

1931.3.173
Herodian, 30 BCE 70 CE
1907.64.2

Roman, 1st century CE
1907.64.268

Roman (Discus with heat shield), 1st century CE

1907.64.286
Early Byzantine (Beit Natif), 360 491 CE

1902.36.2
Late Byzantine (Slipper), 491 640 CE

1902.36.4
Islamic (Umayyad ovoid), 661 750 CE

1907.9.5
Late Islamic (Mamluk), 1258 1517 CE

1892.2.2

Late Islamic (Mamluk), 1258 1517 CE

2006.4.15

Modern
1907.64.194
Time as a Series
88
Chapter 5
What is an Hour?
Today it is 1 /24 of a day, but it was not always so.
The length of the hour is arbitrary, and ways of
counting them have varied in time and place.
What is an Hour?
The splitting of the day into twentyfour hours dates back to the
Egyptians and was influenced by
their administrative division of the
year into ten-day weeks. The dawn
rising of a bright star announced
the start of each week. The spacing
of these decan stars across the visible
night sky divided the night into
twelve hours. By analogy, Egyptian
priests divided the day into twelve
parts. Subdivisions of the hour into
sixty minutes, and the minute into
sixty seconds came from Babylonia,
where astronomical calculations
were done in base sixty.
Common hours
Mechanical equatorial sundial with enamel face
European, c. 1800
Harvard University
2010-1-0004
Since day and night were always divided into twelve hours each, the lengths of light
and dark hours were unequal. The hours were like sponges, expanding and contracting
with the seasons. Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians all used this system. In Asia,
the Chinese and Japanese used similar systems, but their hours were twice as long.
Chapter 5: What is an Hour?
90
Japanese unequal hours

Equatorial sundial, Japan, c. 1700
7933
91
Japanese unequal hours and western

equal minutes on a watch
Triple-case pocket watch by N. James, London, 17001725 with chain attached to Japanese scaphe sundial
7935
92
The invention of the mechanical clock in the 13th century introduced Europe to a
new system of equal hours alongside the old. In the 15th century sundials began to be
calibrated for equal hours too, so that clocks and dials were using the same system.
Even with equal hours, there were many regional styles of counting them. Italians
counted them 124 from sunset; Germans, 124 from sunrise. The French and
English counted 112 twice beginning at midday and midnight. These common hours
were also the preference of astronomers. Many portable sundials show multiple hour
systems so that users could convert between them.
Common, astronomical, and Italian hours

Horizontal and pin-gnomon sundial
Naples, 1627
7191
93
During the French Revolution, reformers introduced a more rational, decimal system
of timekeeping. The day was divided into ten hours, each of 100 minutes. The public
hated it, and it was eventually discontinued.
(at left)
French decimal hours
Pocket watch with both the 10-hour system of the
French Revolution and the common 24-hour system
http://www.antique-horology.org/_Editorial/
RepublicanCalendar/
(below)
Hours from sunrise and hours to sunset,
with common hours
Inclining horizontal and analemmatic sundial
Johann Engelbrecht, Beraun, 1786
Gift of David P. Wheatland
7379
94
Italian and Nuremberg hours alongside

unequal hours and common equal hours
Ivory diptych
Conrad Karner, Nuremberg, 1630
7553
95
Turkish numerals
Quadruple-case watch,
Edward Prior, London, c. 1790
Harvard University
1998-1-1353
96
Chapter 6
Timekeeping
Timekeeping instruments measure time intervals from
fractions of a second to years. They do not find time
directly from nature as sundials do, but track it from
a point chosen by a person.
Calendars
The calendar is a method of
timekeeping over an extended
period. It counts the days in
the year, assigning them to
weeks and months. It is an
administrative system, and
therefore strongly influenced by
the culture in which it is made
and the audience it serves.
Most calendars are based on
the cycles of the Sun and Moon,
which have been used to reckon
time for religious and civil
purposes since as early as
10,000 BCE.
The Common Womans 1972 Calendar

Womens Press, Boston, 1972
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
(details of months on the following pages)
Chapter 6: Timekeeping Calendars
98
Many early calendars were lunar. The Islamic calendar, for instance, is based on
a thirty-year-cycle of twelve lunar months beginning with the date the prophet
Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina (July 16, 622). The Jewish calendar
is luni-solar, adding a leap month in seven lunar years out of nineteen in order to
reconcile the count with solar years. Traditional Chinese and Hindu calendars are
also luni-solar.
Our solar calendar of 365 days had its origins in Egypt around 3000 BCE. By Roman
times, it was ninety days out of step with the suns true position. In 45 BCE, Julius
Caesar reformed it, adding a leap day every four years and moving the start to
January 1 from March 1. A slight error, however, caused large problems: By the
1500s, the Julian calendar was ten days off, causing Easter and religious festivals to fall
too early. A commission appointed by Pope Gregory XIII solved the problem in 1582
by modifying the schedule of leap years and removing ten days.
Chapter 6: Timekeeping Calendars
101
Book of Hours
Books of hours are late medieval
devotional texts. They contain
prayers for specific hours of
the day and night according to
the divine office of the Catholic
Church. They also contain an
ecclesiastical calendar listing
feast days and saints days.
Calendar leaf from a book of hours

French, mid-15th century
Gingerich Collection
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Book of Hours
102
Almanacs
Almanacs are annual compilations
that list each month along with
information about monthappropriate chores, usually
agricultural. They list the rising
and setting of major constellations,
visible planets, predicted eclipses,
and weather. All mark religious
festivals and civic events; some
advise on good and evil days.
Many also offer handy advice on
cooking, medical treatments,
transportation systems, and
animal behavior.
Almanacs have been produced
since the 5th century BCE up to the
present day.
The Diamond Dye Almanac, 1888
Burlington, Vermont, 1887
Chapter 6: Timekeeping Almanacs
103
(above)
The Boston Almanac, 1847
Boston, 1846
Launie Collection
(at left)
The Boston Almanac, 1847 and 1850
Boston, 1846, 1849
Cambridge Directory and Almanac, 1852

Cambridge, 1851
Launie Collection
104
The New Calendar of Salads
The Foolish Almanac for 1906
Chicago, c. 1920
Boston, 1905
(detail on following page)
105
Planners and Diaries

Frequently calendars and almanacs
had space for their owners to note
significant events. This farmers
almanac from 1763 records the birth
of a calf.
Farmers almanac noting birth of a calf

Nathaniel Ames, Astronomical Diary:
or, Almanack, 1763 (Boston, 1762).
Launie Collection
(detail on following page)
107
The ladys diary has an x next to the dates

that its owner got her menstrual period.
The Ladys Almanac for the Year 1869

Boston, 1868
Mary Augusta Cumings Papers, MC 350, vol. 4
109
Phillips Brooks Appointment

Calendar, 1936
Boston, 1935
Harvard University, Marietta Tree Papers,
MC 539, box 6
110
Suffrage Calendar 1912 with lady on a soapbox

Philadelphia, 1911
Suffrage vertical files
111
Give us back our eleven days!

England did not adopt the
Gregorian calendar until 1752,
by which time the double
dating of correspondence
between England and the
Continent had become a tradehindering nuisance. Almanacs
for that year show the loss of
eleven days in September.
New Years Day was also shifted
from March 25 to January 1.
Many people were unhappy with
the financial implications of
losing the eleven days of work
and rent.
Almanac for use during calendar reform

The Ladies Diary: Or, Womans Almanack, 1752
(London, 1751).
(detail on next page)
Give us back our eleven days!
112
Lost days in September during calendar reform

The Ladies Diary: Or, Womans Almanack, 1752
(London, 1751).
Ephemerides
A calendar focused on the positions of the planets, sun, and moon is called an
ephemerides. The technical information was highly valued by astronomers.
This volume was owned by Edmond Halley (1656-1742), the famed astronomer
best known for his research on comet orbits.
Ephemerides owned by Edmond Halley

Johannes Stadius, Ephemerides novae
(Cologne, 1570).
Chapter 6: Timekeeping Ephemerides
114
Calendars and Culture

Different societies keep track of time in distinct ways. Some indigenous people of
Siberia count the days on wooden sticks and disks. The Aztecs had an agricultural
cycle of 365 days, a ritual cycle of 260 days, and a 52-year cycle linking them.
Calendar stick incised with

days and weeks (and detail image)
Samoyedic, Siberia, Russia, pre-1924
Ethnology, Harvard University, PM# 24-48-60/
D2063 (digital file# 99110021, 99110022).
Wolcott Fund, 1924.
115
Calendar markings appear on the Aztec Sun Stone, a twenty-four-ton carving dating
from 1427 CE. It also depicts cycles of creation and destruction in time. The Sun god,
Tonatiuh, in the center, begs to be fed the blood of human hearts in order for him to
keep the world in motion. Around him are the sun gods of prior ages. According to
Aztec cosmology, the present day world contains remnants of worlds that came before.
Aztec Sun Stone (and detail image)

Scale replica of the Aztec Sun Stone preserved in
Mexicos National Museum of Anthropology
Mexico, pre-1902
Harvard University, PM# 02-42-20/C3123 (digital file#
99110008, 99110009). Gift of George B. Pitcher, 1902.
116
Sabjassi calendar disk with

days of the week
Yakut, Siberia, Russia, pre-1924
Ethnology, Harvard University, PM# 2448-60/D2327 (digital file# 99110023).
Wolcott Fund, 1924.
Persian zodiac
perhaps 17th century
Harvard University,
7350
117
Sand Glasses
Invented in the Middle Ages,
sand glasses measure time by the
flow of a crushed materialrock
or eggshellsfrom one ampoule
to another. The intervals may be
hours, or fractions of hours and
minutes.
Sand glasses were used to time
sermons and lessons. Aboard
ships, large ones timed two-hour
work periods called watches.
For determining the ships speed,
sailors used 28-second sand
glasses to time the distance run
as knots played out in a log line
tossed overboard. Delightfully
ornamental sand glasses were for
domestic use.
Sand glass
European, mid-19th century
7291
Sand Glasses
118
Sand glass of short duration,

likely for timing eggs
Sand glass with fractionated ampoule
Possibly English, mid-19 century

7290
th

7305
(on next page)
Stay and take the other glass

Minister rotates his sand glass in order to double
the time of his sermon
William Yonge, Englands Shame, or
The Unmasking of a Politick Atheist (London, 1663).
*EC65 P4425 W663y
Sand Glasses
119
Sand glass with fractionated ampoule

7289
Sand Glasses
121
The sand glass maker

Christoph Weigel, Abbildung der
gemein-ntzlichen Haupt-Stnde (Ratisbon, 1698).
Typ 620.98 876
Sand Glasses
122
Double sand glass
Double sand glass
Possibly German, 17th century
Possibly French, c. 1700

7295

7296
Sand Glasses
123
Interval Timers
The earliest timers were the
human pulse or the chanting
of words. Then came water
clocks that measured time drop
by drop, and fire clocks that
used the amount of candle wax
or incense consumed. Sand
glasses came on the scene in
the Middle Ages.
The development of precision
timers had encouragement from
surprising places. To time horse
races, Nicolas Rieussec in 1821
invented the first chronograph
with a seconds indicator.
Polaroid allegedly repurposed
some bomb timers in their film
development timers.
Sand glass timer
Italian, c. 1750
7300
Interval Timers
124
Horse-race chronograph
with seconds indicator
The user can pay full attention to the race
while operating a pen trigger that drops an
ink spot on the rotating dial. The position
of the spots on the dial indicates the
beginning and end of the interval timed.
Nicolas Rieussec, 1822
DW0648
Interval Timers
125
Stopwatch
W. E. Huguenin
Switzerland, c. 1866
Harvard University, Transfer from the Institute of
Geographical Exploration, c. 1967
5118
Interval Timers
126
Electric motor timer

French, c. 1880
DW0095
Peel-apart, instant-film
development timer
Owned by Edwin H. Land,
the inventor of Polaroid
Polaroid, Cambridge, 1963-1978
Harvard University,
Gift of the Edwin Land family, 2004
2004-1-0139
Interval Timers
127
Clocks and Watches

Water-powered, geared mechanisms existed in Greece in the 3rd century BCE to
measure time and show star positions and lunar phases. Unfortunately, this clock
technology was lost with the fall of the Roman Empire.
To regulate times of prayer, medieval monks turned to sundials by day and simple water
clocks by night. In cloudy, frozen, northern climes, neither was reliable. The invention
of the sand glass helped, but the monks found they needed some sort of alarm to wake
the sleepy brother whose job it was to call them all to prayer.
The weight-driven clock solved the problem in the late 13th century. By the 1330s,
clocks were set up in church towers and struck bells to count the hours. Anyone in
earshot could now tell the time.
Domestic timepieces followed. Use of a mainspring in place of falling weights enabled
them to be more compact around 1400. The pocket watch came on the scene around
1575.
These early clocks did well to mark the hours. Improvements to their movements led
to increased precision, particularly with the introduction of the pendulum by Christian
Huygens in 1656. The addition of minute and second hands came after 1680.
At first only the rich could afford to own a clock or watch. But improved workshop
practices and economic competition brought down prices, making clocks accessible
to merchants and others in the 18th century.
Clocks and Watches
128
The Clockmaker
Hartmann Schopper, Panoplia omnium illiberalium
mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera
continens (Frankfurt, 1558).
Typ 520 68.773
Clocks and Watches
129
Evolution of the Watch

All watches have three basic partsan energy source, something that vibrates
consistently and controls the release of the energy, and a way to count and display
those vibrations. Here are watches paired with movements of their day over a
300-year period.
Pair-case pocket watch with spring and fusee

Owned by William Bond, Plymouth, England, before
1784 and later his son, William Cranch Bond,
director of Harvard College Observatory.
George Lindsay, London, 1724
1990-1-0007
130
Pair-case pocket watch with spring and fusee

John Pepys, London, 1680-1708
Harvard University
7953
131
Quarter-hour repeater pocket watch

Purchased by astronomer William Cranch Bond
in Paris in 1819 on a trip abroad to determine
the best instruments to equip a new observatory
at Harvard.
Breguet et Fils, Paris, 1819
Harvard University,
Transfer from Harvard College Observatory, 1963
1993-1-0005
132
(above)
Watch winding keys
From the collection of William Bond & Son,
Boston, c. 1929
1998-1-1161
(at left)
Asa Grays first pocket watch
Bought by the botanist with $60.00 from the
proceeds of Grays first course of Lowell Lectures
at Harvard.
Abraham Vacheron Girod, Geneva, 1843
Harvard University, Transfer from the Gray Herbarium,
Harvard University, 1990
1990-2-0009
133
Hunting case pocket watch

Given to Dr. Sereno Watson in 1885 by fellow
paleobotanist and bryologist, Leo Lesquereux
out of appreciation for Watsons assistance in
the completion of the Manual of the Mosses of
North America.
Edouard Richard, Le Locle, c. 1885
1990-2-0010
134
Ladys pendant watch

Probably a Swiss import sold by
William Bond & Son, Boston, c. 1900
DW0563
Pocket watch
Accutron wristwatch with tuning fork
Presented to botanist C. A. Weatherby upon his

retirement from the Gray Herbarium in 1940.
Hamilton Watch Company, Lancaster, 1940
Until October 25, 1960, all watches ticked. Thats

when Bulova introduced the first electronic watch
that hummed. With a tuning fork that oscillated at
360 Hz, it was accurate enough for use by NASA.
Bulova Watch Company, New York, 1967

1990-2-0011

Harvard University, Gift of Lewis Law
1998-1-1354
136
Accutron wristwatch with tuning fork

Bulova Watch Company, New York, 1970
Harvard University, Gift of Ebenezer Gay, 1989
1988-0026
137
Ladys wristwatch with

quartz crystal to keep the beat
In 1969, Seiko made the first quartz wristwatches.
Seiko, Japan, c. 1990
Why do the hours run clockwise on clocks?

They copy the direction the shadow moves hour-by-hour
on sundials in the northern hemisphere.
Sundials Regulate Clocks

Clocks can only keep time from an arbitrary starting point and do it in an average way.
Sundials find the time directly and precisely from nature. Therefore all early clock
users needed a good sundial to set their clocks.
Cannon sundial at the Palais Royal gardens

Fulgence Marion, The Wonders of Optics
(London, 1868).
140
A beloved method for setting ones watch was the cannon dial, which combined a
horizontal sundial and a noon gun. At midday, a burning lens focused the suns beam
onto the touch hole of the cannon, igniting the gunpowder. One was set up in the
gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris in 1786. Every fine day towards twelve oclock,
wrote an observer in 1868, crowds of Parisians who have nothing to do may be seen
bending their steps towards the Palais Royal to set their watches by the gun.
Man setting his watch by the noon blast

of a cannon sundial
Adolphe Ganot, Natural Philosophy for General Readers
and Young Persons (New York, 1872).
Cabot Science Library, Harvard College Library
141
(above)
Dipleidoscope
Fixed to a porch rail or window sill, the dipleidoscope
uses the light of the midday sun in order to determine
true noon for the express purpose of setting ones watch.
E. J. Dent, London, c. 1850
7890
(at left)
Young man using Dents dipleidoscope
to set his watch
E. J. Dent, A Description of the Dipleidoscope
(London, 1875).
Private Collection
142
Precision inclining sundial in bearings

Matthew Berge, London, c. 1800-1817
Harvard University,
7477
143
Old Timer
The original logo of the National Association of
Watch and Clock Collectors showed a Victorian
gentleman checking his pocket watch against a
garden sundial. The image was taken from the
title page of James W. Benson, Time and TimeTellers (London, 1875).
NAWCC membership patch
United States, c. 1975
The foolish servant has dug up the sundial

when asked to set his masters watch to it
Copy of the Irish Footman, an etching by Thomas
Rowlandson, after George Moutard Woodward,
originally published by R. Ackermann, London, 1808.
144
Equation of Time
Unfortunately, the sun is not a
very regular timekeeper because
of the earths motion. Sundial
time can be as much as 16
minutes off from mean clock
time. The difference between
solar time and mean time
follows a proscribed annual
cycle. The conversion between
the two is called the equation
of time. Tables and diagrams
for the equation of time were
published by astronomers in the
mid-17th century, and included
with watches and sundials
beginning in the 18th century.
Heliochronometer
An instrument to find mean time from the sun by putting
a spot of light on the equation of time, which is laid out on
the figure-eight shape, known as the analemma.
P. Flechet et Cie., Paris, c. 1880
Harvard University
7398
(detail of analemma on following page)
Equation of Time
145
Watch papers with the equation of time

Such useful papers to convert solar time to mean
time for setting ones watch were stored in watch
cases. These were found with the pocket watch
by George Lindsay, 1724.
William Bond & Son, early 19th century
Harvard University
1990-1-0007
Biological Clocks
Plants and animals track linear time through growth rings. The rings on this
eastern hemlock cookie inform us that the tree lived over 220 years. Those on the
Massachusetts clam shells indicate that these animals can live up to 500 years.
The scutes on a turtles shell also have an age-dependent ring structure.
Other biological changes show times cyclical aspects. Circadian rhythms are
biological cyclessuch as wakefulness and sleepobserved to occur daily. The female
menstrual cycle is a monthly occurrence. Women worried about the decline of their
fertility with age often speak of their biological clocks ticking down.
Tree rings
Cross section of a 220-year-old Eastern
Hemlock, Tsuga canadensis
Arnold Arboretum, 2012
Collected by David Orwig of the Harvard Forest
Harvard University Herbaria
Biological Clocks
148
Leopard tortoises,
Stigmochelys pardalis babcocki
Adult from Arusha, Tanzania, 1916
and juvenile from Moroto, Uganda, 1967
Harvard University, Herpetology Collection,
MCZ R-18156 (paratype) and MCZ R-120270
(in ethanol)
Biological Clocks
149
Long lives of clams

Clam shells, Arctica islandica
Collected in Lynn, Massachusetts, 1895
and near Barnstable, Cape Cod, 1954
Malacology Collection, MCZ 15042 (4 specimens)
and MCZ 200495 (1 specimen)
Biological Clocks
150
The Forecaster
Menstrual cycle slide chart
New York, The Forecaster Co., 1948
Boston Association for Childbirth Education Records:
MC 515 6.5
Your Pregnancy Calculator

Circular rule
American College of Nurse-Midwives, 1988
Boston Association for Childbirth Education Records:
MC 515 6.6
Biological Clocks
152
Alimentary timetable
Kellog Company, The Sunny Side of Life Book
(London, Ontario, 1934).
Biological Clocks
153
Chapter 7
Atomic Time
In late 1967, the second the basic unit of time
was officially redefined in terms of measurements
made with atomic clocks rather than by astronomical
observations of the Earths motion.
Atomic Time
The first atomic clock was built in 1948 at
the U.S. National Bureau of Standards. This
clock used radiation emitted and absorbed
by the ammonia molecule to measure time.
However, the ammonia clock was not very
stable and only ever ran for a few hours.
In 1955 the first clock based on cesium
atoms was built at the National Physics
Laboratory in the U.K. This clock was more
stable and precise than any previously built
clock. It established an atomic definition
of the second: 9,192,631,770 cycles of the
cesium frequency. In 1967, the international
timekeeping community adopted this
new second.
Since then, several types of atomic clocks
have been developed, offering increased
precision and stability. One example is the
hydrogen maser clock, developed by
Norman Ramsey and his colleagues at
Harvard in 1960.
Hydrogen maser clock
Model H-10, serial no. 5, used at MITs Lincoln Lab
Varian Associates, Quantum Electronic Devices,
c. 1964
Harvard University, Gift of the MIT Haystack
Observatory and Lincoln Laboratory
1998-1-1628
Chapter 7: Atomic Time
155
Uses of Atomic Time

Atomic clocks and their high-precision time measurements have benefited science and
consumer technologies.
In 1976 a hydrogen maser clock was sent
into space to measure the gravitational
redshift predicted by Einsteins general
theory of relativity. This maser was
used to confirm the value predicted by
relativity to 1 part in 106. Before the
advent of atomic clocks, the red shift had
only been confirmed to an accuracy of
1 part in 102.
The first atomic clock, based on the ammonia

molecule, was built in 1948 by Harold Lyons
(right) and his team at the US National
Bureau of Standards. In this iconic photograph,
the copper tubing containing the ammonia is
wrapped around a tradional clock face.
Atomic clocks are central to the

functioning of the Global Positioning
System (GPS), which became operational
in 1993. Each satellite in the GPS
network carries several atomic clocks on
board that transmit highly accurate time
signals. These time signals are used to
triangulate positions on Earth.
Uses of Atomic Time
156
In hydrogen maser clocks, a quartz crystal oscillator is tuned to the frequency

of radiation emitted when the hydrogen atoms change state (1,420,405,752 Hz).
Hydrogen atoms pass through a magnetic state selector, which allows those in the
higher state to enter a microwave cavity. Within the cavity, the atoms are exposed to
applied radiation at the transition frequency, causing some of the atoms to drop to
the lower state. These transitions release further radiation at the transition frequency,
creating a resonance effect.
The emitted radiation is used to lock the applied radiation at the transition frequency,
as well as tune a quartz crystal oscillator that can tick seconds.
Uses of Atomic Time
157
Chapter 8
In Time Together
Keeping together in time synchrony
is a major part of community life.
Dance, Drill, and

Timed Movement
Shared muscular movement in timewhether dance or military drill, calisthenics or
repetitive workreinforces a sense of community and common purpose, especially
when done to music or rhythmic drumming.
Pair of drums with sticks

Palestine, late 19th century
Chapter 8: In Time Together
Dance, Drill, and Timed Movement
159
Tambourine
Damascus, 19th century
(on following page)
Dance choreography
Kellom Tomlinson, The Art of Dancing Explained
by Reading and Figures (London, 1735).
Typ 705.35.842
160
Putting the motions down on paper is a challenge. Raoul-Auger Feuillet (1659-1710)

and Kellom Tomlinson (1690-1753) taught dance figures by assigning choreographic
symbols to measures of music. Elocution manuals of the 19th century recommended
the metronome to actors and ministers as a tool to pace their words and gestures.
Gestures to reinforce words

Andrew Comstock, A system of elocution, with special
reference to gesture, to the treatment of stammering,
and defective articulation (Philadelphia, 1843).
162
Musical Tempo
Since the 15th century, performers
have kept together in time by
tactus, or touch. Tempo was
conveyed by hand gestures, finger
tapping, foot stamping, and beating
the floor with a stick. Changes in
tempo were declared in written
instructions that went with the
music. As musical productions
grew larger in scale and included
opera, theater, and orchestral
performances, there came a
need for more visible and central
coordination by a conductor.
Batons were first used at the end
of the 18th century.
The Cantor
Christoph Weigel, Abbildung der gemein-ntzlichen
Haupt-Stnde (Ratisbon, 1698).
Hougton Library, Harvard College Library
Typ 620.98 876
Conducting baton
Mollard, Bath, Ohio, 2013
Harvard University
Musical Tempo
163
The metronome, invented in

1812, offered composers a
way to establish a tempo and
musicians a way to maintain
it in performance. Ludwig
Beethoven was the first to
employ metronome markings.
Musical notation fixes music in
time by making the duration
and rhythm of notes visible on
the page.
Maelzel-type metronome
European, 19th century
Harvard University
RS1262
Musical Tempo
164
Timetables
To take advantage of public
transportation, people need
transit schedules.
For business or pleasure: A guide to the worlds

largest connected system of electric street cars
at the turn of the 20th century
Derrahs Official Street Railway Guide for New England
(Boston: Robert. H. Derrah, c. 1907).
Baker Old Class Collection.
(timetable on following page)
Chapter 8: In Time Together Timetables
165
Catching the horse rail in Harvard Square in 1862

A user notes that the horse car leaves twenty minutes
earlier than advertised.
Russells Horse Railroad Guide for Boston and Vicinity
(Boston: B. B. Russell, 1862).
Chapter 8: In Time Together Timetables
167
Sacred Time
In many religions there is an
underlying belief that the power
of prayer is strengthened when
members of the whole community
raise their voices together.
This promotes time discipline.
Pillar dial with a Jesuit seal on base

Spanish, c. 1700
7183
Sacred Time
168
Required to pray at certain hours of the day and night, Catholic monks and nuns
used sundials and clocks to keep on schedule. After the Gregorian reform of the
old Julian calendar in 1582, German sundials often had epact tables in both systems
for determining the date of Easter over a nineteen year period. Religious imagery
adorned sundials owned by the devout.
Epact tables for determining the date

of Easter according to the Julian and
Gregorian calendars
Ivory diptych
Hans Troschel II, Nuremberg, 1620-1634
7535
Sacred Time
169
Horizontal Solnhofen limestone sundial with Jesuit symbols

South German, 17th century
7281
Islam had its own special sundials to help Muslims know the direction to face during
ritual prayers. Known as qibla indicators, they found the times for the days prayers
and the direction of Mecca.
Qibla indicator
Persian, 19th century
Harvard University,
7351
Sacred Time
171
Native Americans also had

time-based religious practices.
For instance, this headdress
was worn by a female dancer
appearing during the annual
Night Dances in March near
the time of the spring planting.
The dances are part of a cycle of
Hopi ceremonies and prayers for
a good harvest.
Palhikmana tablita (Butterfly-Dance headdress)

With cloud motifs on top, the sun in the center,
and flowers on left and right
Harvard University, PM# 45-25-10/28712 (digital file#
99110015). Gift of the Estate of Mary Hemenway, 1945.
Sacred Time
172
Gentlemen, Synchronize
Your Watches
In the late 19th century, the U.S. government sent
daily time signals over telegraph lines to public
clocks as part of a time service. People would use it
to set their mechanical watches. After 1920, people
could get a form of electric time in their homes,
thanks to the Warren Clock Company of Ashland,
Massachusetts. Its new clock, the Telechron, had
a synchronous motor and depended on electricpower stations delivering alternating current at a
standard frequency of sixty cycles per second.
The name Telechron means time from a distance.
Advertisement, Elgin
National Watch Company
Illinois, 1902
Telechron synchronous-motor clock

Warren Clock Company, Ashland, 1923
1998-1-1318
Gentlemen, Synchronize Your Watches
173
Taking a precise mechanical clock along was another way to synchronize timepieces at
remote stations. Chronometers were used for this purpose in navigation and surveying.
56-hour marine chronometer

John Bliss & Co., New York, c. 1880
DW0246
174
Chronometer and tape chronograph

T. & F. Mercer, St. Albans, c. 1900
DW0471a,b
175
Chapter 9
Business of Time
Two local firms W illiam Bond & Son and the American
Watch Company introduced the world to American
know-how with superior timekeepers in the 19 th century.
William Bond & Son

William Bond & Son was
founded in 1793 by an English
watchmaker who settled in
Boston. Joining him in the
business was his son, the
astronomer William Cranch
Bond. W. C. Bond built the
first American-made marine
chronometer in 1812. With his
son George, he devised a breakcircuit device that permitted a
clock to send electrical signals.
This was the foundation of the
new American method of
determining longitude and the
sending standard time signals
along telegraph lines.
Watchmakers transit
From the workshop of Bond & Son
John Bliss & Co., New York, c. 1880
1997-1-1800
Chapter 9: Business of Time
William Bond & Son
177
The firms main business was supplying and regulating chronometers and making
pocket watches of superior quality for railroad conductors. The Bonds also designed
and built outstanding and innovative regulator clocks for use in astronomical
observatories. These award-winning clocks were so precise and reliable that they
delivered standard time to the railroads of New England. Other clients were the
U.S. Navy and the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Tool for repairing barrels of

watch mainsprings
Andrew S. Clackner, Rochester, c. 1865
Harvard University,
Gift of William B. Osgood, 1959.
2005-1-0192
Uprighting tool
American, c. 1845
Harvard University
2005-1-0128
William Bond & Son
178
Casting pattern: 2 pillar screws for

Bond regulators nos. 394, 395, 396
William Bond & Son,
Boston, mid-19th century
Harvard University
2005-1-0143
Casting pattern: Conical pendulum ring

for Bond regulators nos. 394, 395, 396
William Bond & Son,
Harvard University
2005-1-0130
Casting patterns: 3 weight pulleys

William Bond & Son,
Harvard University
2005-1-0107
William Bond & Son
179
Casting pattern and core box

for spherical weights for
Bond regulators nos. 394, 395, 396
William Bond & Son,
Harvard University
2005-1-0092
Casting patterns: 4 chronometer

or clock winding keys
William Bond & Son,
Harvard University
2005-1-0032
Casting pattern: Seatboard for

Bond regulator no. 370
William Bond & Son,
Harvard University
2005-1-0091
William Bond & Son
180
(on previous page)
Bond & Son awards:

Bronze medal, Great Exhibition of 1851
Harvard University
1998-1-1362
Silver medal for chronometers

Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, 1856
Harvard University
1998-1-1356
Gold medal for astronomical regulator, Bond no. 396

Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, 1869
Harvard University
1998-1-1355
William Bond & Son
182
American Watch
Company of Waltham
A revolution in watch making occurred in Waltham, Massachusetts in the 1850s
with the application of the mass production techniques used for firearms to the
pocket watch. The watch was redesigned so that the movement was assembled from
interchangeable parts. Specialized machinery made each component. The tightly
organized factory employed many skilled men and women.
Hours of work and wages of watch factory employees (detail)

Waltham Watch Company
Time book, 1872
Waltham Watch Co. Records.
(full view on following page)
The American Watch Company of Waltham
183
The Waltham watches were

the worlds first machine-made
watches. They were lower
cost yet far more reliable than
imported watches. In 1858, the
company manufactured 14,000
watches. Numbers climbed
from there with the production
of better and more diverse
movements. Walthams factory
methods were newsworthy
enough to make the cover of
Scientific American.
Printing block promoting Riverside movement

Waltham Watch Company, c. 1910
(on following pages)
The Watch as a Growth of Invention

Scientific American, September 1870
Launie Collection
Watchmaking by machinery
in America
Illustrated London News, June 1875
185
Pocket watch model 57

Appleton, Tracy & Co., Waltham, 1857
Launie Collection
188
Pocket watch, model 99, no. 625 grade

American Waltham Watch Co., Waltham, 1899
Launie Collection
189
Pocket watch, model 92, Vanguard grade

Waltham Watch Co., Waltham, 1894
Launie Collection
190
Box of mainsprings
Waltham Watch Company, 1899
Launie Collection
191
Watchmakers transit
J. Short, London, c. 1870
Harvard University, Transfer from Agassiz Station,
1997-1-1933
192
Swiss Knock-Offs
Waltham watches were so good that Swiss watchmakers counterfeited the American
product and tried to pass them off as the real thing.
The earliest methods for tracking the time

were observations of the sun, moon, and stars.
Pocket watch model 57
Swiss fake of the model 57
Appleton, Tracy & Co., Waltham, 1859
U S Watch Co, Boston, c. 1860
Launie Collection
Launie Collection
(comparison of movements on following page)
Swiss Knock-Offs
193
Comparison of pocket watch model 57 (above)

and the Swiss knock-off (beneath)
Ledger of watch repairs

Daybook, D. E. Hoxie,
Northhampton, 1875-1880
Baker Library,
Ledger of watch repairs

Daybook, D. E. Hoxie,
Northhampton, 1875-1880
Baker Library,
Watchmakers Tradecard
John Wilson, Carlisle, England, 1840-1850
Foxwell Trade Card Collection,
Chapter 1 0
Work Time
Work is ruled by the clock in business and the home.
Time and Labor

With the American Industrial
Revolution, work moved out of
homes and small shops into large
factories and engineering projects.
Wages were based on time, not on
the piece. Work schedules were
very strict and had long hours.
Time sheets recorded who worked
when and how long.
Women punching the clock

At the SKF roller bearing factory
Marjory Collins, photographer,
Philadelphia, 1942 or 1943
At the cotton mills, factory

managers rang bells to call
workers to the gates, to send them
to and from meals, and mark the
days end. Work was ruled by the
clock, and the mills time table said
precisely which clock on which
street corner was the master.

LC-USW3- 022507-E [P&P]
Chapter 10: Work Time
Time and Labor
199
The work day was longer in

summer than winter months
to take advantage of more
natural light, but workers
got the same days wage.
When artificial lighting was
introduced, the workday
stretched up to 14 hours long.
Middlesex Canal workers time records, 1797
(on next pages)
Time Records, 1797-1823. Baldwin Family Business Records:

Canal Papers. Baker Library, Harvard Business School
Time Table of the Lowell Mills

[Lowell, Mass.]: B.H. Penhallow, 1851.
Time Table of the Newburyport

Cotton Mills
[Newburyport, Mass.]: Morss, Brewster &
Huse, printers, corner of State and
Middle Streets, c. 1855.
Time and Labor
200
In disgust workers organized in

the early 19 th century to try and
reduce the work day to ten hours.
In Massachusetts, legislation was
passed limiting the work day
to 10 hours for women and
children in 1887. By this time,
factory workers here and overseas
were campaigning for an 8-hour
work day.
Fight for an eight-hour day

Tom Mann, What a Compulsory 8 Hour Working Day
Means to the Workers (London: Modern Press, 1886).
Time and Labor
203
The folks who brought you the weekend

The Labor Movement bumper sticker
United States, 2012
Campaign for an eight-hour day

James Leatham, An Eight Hours Day with
Ten Hours Pay: How to Get It and How to
Keep It (Aberdeen: J. Leatham, 1890).
Time and Labor
204
Time is Money
Benjamin Franklin designed this
currency for the Continental
Congress in 1776. The bill and
coin feature a sundial with the
Latin word fugio (I fly) next to
the sun. Below the dial is the
motto, Mind Your Business.
Fugio Cent
The United Colonies, one cent, 1776.
American Currency Collection.
Time is Money
205
Fugio paper notes of

fractional denominations
The United Colonies, 1/3 dollar, 1776.
American Currency Collection.
Mesopotamian
Monthly Expenses
This cuneiform tablet records in Sumerian that a brewer (Ur-Dumuzi) paid for
barley on four successive months in the years 2 and 3 of the reign of Amar-Suen
(2047-2048 BCE) to make his beer.
Economic text
Mesopotamian, UR III Period
(c. 21st 20th century BCE)
Mesopotamian Monthly Expenses
207
Daylight Saving
and War Time
Daylight Saving Time was created
by Congress in 1918 as a national
plan to save fuel during World War I.
Protests by farmers led Congress to
repeal the act at the wars end. At the
outbreak of World War II, the United
States again adopted daylight saving
time to save electricity and encourage
evening work on Victory gardens.
It was observed year-round until 1945.
Between the wars and since, it has
been state choice whether to observe
daylight saving time.
Workers were encouraged to hustle
to be more productive during
World War I and II.
Victory! Congress Passes Daylight Saving Bill

Poster showing Uncle Sam turning a clock to
Daylight Saving Time as a clock-headed lad gets
ready to work on his victory garden. Sponsored by
United Cigar Stores Company, United States, 1918
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
POS - US .U55, no. 4 (C size) [P&P]
Daylight Saving and War Time
208
Every Minute Counts

Posters were designed and produced by the Division of Information,
Office of War Information for display in war plants throughout the
United States.
Photograph of women inspecting drills,
Republic Drill and Tool Company, Chicago, 1942
Ann Rosener, photographer, Chicago, August 1942
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
LC-USE6- D-005716 [P&P]
Daylight Saving and War Time
209
Domestic Time
Management
Beginning in the 19th century, a
woman who stayed home while
her husband went to work was
encouraged to run an orderly
household. There were many
domestic guides and ready-made
items to help her do it.
Home efficiency was taken to new
heights in the 20th century work
of Lillian Gilbreth. An industrial
psychologist and mother of twelve,
Gilbreth applied the principles of
scientific management to housework.
Using time-and-motion studies, she
reorganized kitchens to eliminate
unnecessary steps and promoted
time-saving methods of food
preparation. The goal was to have
more happiness minutes.
Not enough hours in the day for working women
Sybil Stanton, The 25 Hour Woman
(Old Tappan, New Jersey, 1986).
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
Domestic Time Management
210
The Economy of Time

Hand-sewn commonplace book
Hattie A. Harlow, Brockton and Bridgewater,
Massachusetts, 1870-1889
Harvard University, Hattie A. Harlow Papers,
90-M43
211
Five Minute Meats

Harvard University, Culinary Pamphlets
Pr-6, box 51
Mapping out the time-saving kitchen.

Scenes from Lillian Gilbreths book
Lillian Gilbreth, Management in the Home:
Happier Living through Saving Time and Energy
(New York, 1964).
Harvard University, 647 G463m, 1964
213
Chart of the most efficient way to

make meatloaf, with a key to actions
Lillian Gilbreth, Management in the Home:
Happier Living through Saving Time and Energy
(New York, 1964).
Harvard University, 647 G463m, 1964
Chapter 11
Time Out
Coffee breaks, tea time, happy hours these are all ways
we stop time and rest from work and responsibilities.
The Coffee Break

Legend has it that an Ethiopian
goatherd in about AD 800
noticed his goats gamboling from
one coffee shrub to another, and
after tasting a few beans himself
was soon frolicking with his
flock. Coffee crossed the Red Sea
to Arabia by AD 1000, but the
roasted brew was not introduced
to Europe until 1615.
Time out for coffee

Customers at the auction sale of Mr. Anthony Yaceks farm,
Derby, Connecticut, 1940
Jack Delano, photographer, Derby, 1940
Farm Security Administration Office of War Information Photograph Collection
LC-USF34- 041927-E [P&P] LOT 1270
Chapter 11: Time Out
The ritual coffee break during

the workday arrived on the
scene around 1900, but was
not called that until 1952. It
came with social reforms in
American industry as a way to
ease drudgery and perk up the
workforce.
The Coffee Break
216
Bedouin Hospitality
Bedouins are well known for their hospitality to desert travelers. When a guest arrives,
he is treated to a coffee ritual. The master of the tent will personally roast coffee beans
over a fire and let them cool. He places the beans in an enormous, decorated mortar
and pounds them with a pestle in a rhythm all his own. The drumming sound will
draw men to the tent to exchange news and tell stories with the guest. The coffee is
boiled with cardamom and served in a long-beaked, brass pot called a dallah. Three
cups of coffee are proper. The host pours and tastes the first cup himself in order to
let the guest feel safe. The guest tastes the second cup of coffee. The third cup is also
drunk by the guest. When he has had enough, he wobbles his cup and hands it back
to the host.
Bedouin Hospitality
217
Mortar and pestle for grinding coffee
Dallah
Bedouin, 19th century
Traditional Bedouin coffee pot

Early 20th century
Harvard Semitic Museum, 1907.2.13 a/b

Harvard University
Bedouin Hospitality
218
Bedouins roasting coffee

Adwan-Louzi tribes, Sheik Majids tent
Bedouins in Jordan and other locations,
an album of gelatin silver prints
John D. Whiting, photographer, Jordan, 1934-1935
LOT 13852 (H) [P&P] LC-DIG-ppmsca-18429-00029
(digital file from original on page 14, no. 27)
Time out on the assembly line

That thirty-minute lunch period has earnest and enthusiastic
devotees at the Willow Run bomber plant. To save time,
workers bring lunches from home and eat close to the job.
Part of a series of photographs about production at the Willow
Run bomber plant, built and operated by Ford Motor Company
in Michigan on its Willow Run farm for the production of B-24
Liberator bombers during World War II
Ann Rosener, photographer, July 1942
LC-USE6- D-005693 [P&P]
Time out on the assembly line
220
Lunch break at the construction site

Workmen at lunch hour on an emergency, office-space
construction job, Washington, D.C., 1941
John Collier, photographer,
Washington, D.C., December 1941
LC-USF34- 081707-E [P&P] LOT 1402
Lunch break at the construction site
221
Take Five for Music
Take Five
The Time Out jazz album had Dave Brubecks hit single,
Take Five, and other compositions that experimented
with uncommon time signatures
Time Out
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Columbia Records, New York, 1959
Take Five for Music
222
Time out for music

Playlist on the headphones in the exhibition.
Lo Ferr
Avec le temps 4:27
Charles Aznavour
Le temps 2:37
Johann Sebastian Bach
Das wohltemperierte Klavier 4:07
Beethoven
Symphony no. 5 in C minor 7:38
Pink Floyd
Time 6:54
Metallica
The Day that Never Comes 7:56
The Doors
The End 6:30
Jacques Brel
La valse mille temps 3:52
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626
2:49
Bruno Pelletier
Le temps des cathdrales
2:25
Daniel Blanger
Quatre saisons dans le dsordre 4:48
Maurice Ravel
Bolro 14:49
Peter Gabriel
Big Time 4:28
Sting
All This Time 4:54
The Police
Synchronicity 3:23
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Take Five 5:25
The Byrds
Turn! Turn! Turn! 3:49
Time out for music
223
Chapter 1 2
Time Stopped and Preserved
We capture fleeting moments in time and preserve them
for posterity with sound recordings and snapshots.
The Photograph
and the Phonograph
Flowered phonograph horn

Edison Manufacturing Company, New York, c. 1904
Harvard University
1997-1-0981a
Chapter 12: Time Stopped and Preserved
Two mid-19th century inventionsthe

photograph and phonographradically
changed the human experience of
time. The images and voices of loved
ones could now be recorded. The
Gramophone Company emphasized this
point in its trademarks. The first was
the recording angel, which showed a
seated angel writing the groove into the
disc record. The second was Francis
Barrauds painting of Nipper the dog
listening to his masters voice being
played off a record.
The Photograph and the Phonograph
225
Recording angel
Trademark of the Gramophone Company, 1898-1909
Private Collection
Nipper the dog hears his masters voice

Victor disc record
Victor Talking Machine Company,
Camden, New Jersey, c. 1908

Chapter
12: Time Stopped and Preserved
226
(above)
Edison Gem phonograph
National Phonograph Company,
Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Orange, New Jersey, 1904
Harvard University
8503
(at left)
Edison cylinder record in case
227
Swinger Polaroid Land camera

with original box and manual
This camera was owned by Edwin H. Land,
the inventor of instant photography
Polaroid, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1965-1970
Harvard University, Gift of the family of Edwin Land, 2004
2004-1-0074
228
Chronophotography
Another invention was chronophotographya set of stop-action photographs of
rapidly moving things in order to study and measure the motion. Pioneers of this
technique included artist Eadward Muybridge (1830-1904) and scientist
tienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904).
Marey-wheel photographs of unidentified

model with Eadweard Muybridge notation
Thomas Eakins, Motion Studies, Philadelphia, 1884
The Library Company of Philadelphia
Chapter 12: Time Stopped and Preserved Chronophotography
229
Time in a Jar
Tschudis African bullfrog is a remarkable species of large frog that spends as much
as ten months a year aestivating to conserve water and wait out drought conditions.
Before the land becomes parched, the frog burrows into soft earth, sheds several layers
of skin to form a cocoon, and keeps only its nostrils exposed. Summer rains trigger it
to emerge from its low metabolic state.
This South African specimen was collected in 1910, over a hundred years ago.
Tschudis African bullfrog,

Pyxicephalus adspersus
Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa,
25 November 1910
Herpetology Collection, MCZ A-10788 (in ethanol)
Time in a Jar
230
Engineering Students Attempt to Arrest Time

Daylight Saving Time poses Big Problem for Some: These
engineering students at South Dakota School of Mines and
Technology needed a slide rule, wrench and hammer to work
over their sundial for the annual time change.
Original photographic print with news clipping dated
28 April 1969, catalogued under Day Light Saving Time.
Released from a newspaper morgue
Engineering Students Attempt to Arrest Time
231
Chapter 1 3
Mathematics and
the Art of Time
Sundial makers have designed instruments of
great beauty and mathematical complexity.
Polyhedral Sundials
Polyhedral dials and portable compendia often had a unique sundial on every surface,
much to the joy of their owners.
Astronomical compendium
Calendar detail showing festivals and activities
in April, May, and June
Christoph Schissler, Augsburg, c. 1550
7470
Chapter 13: Mathematics and the Art of Time
Polyhedral Sundials
233
Astronomical compendium
Christoph Schissler, Augsburg, c. 1550
7470
Polyhedral Sundials
234
Pillar sundial
Inclining cube sundial
Johann Spiegel, Lindau, c. 1705
David Beringer, Nuremberg, 1771-1821

7188

Harvard University
7391
Polyhedral Sundials
235
Stone cube sundial

Nuremberg, 1774
Harvard University
7405
Polyhedral Sundials
236
Polyhedral sundial
Possibly Johann Spiegel, Lindau, c. 1700
7384
Polyhedral Sundials
237
Scenes of Virtue
Between the hour lines, artists placed scenes of nature, civic virtues, religious motifs,
and images of people from foreign lands.
Painted castle in landscape, sun, moon,

and stars
Ivory diptych, with case
French, 1623
Harvard University,
7495
Scenes of Virtue
238
(above)
Compass dial with heart-shaped plumb
bob and engraved cover
Edmund Culpeper, London, c. 1700-1737
Harvard University,
7484
(at left)
Sweet flowers
Tiny bone diptych
Possibly Karner workshop,
Nuremberg, 17th century
Harvard University,
Ernst Collection of Sundials, transferred from the
7894
Scenes of Virtue
239
Carved sun
Wooden diptych
South Germany, c. 1820
7437
Scenes of Virtue
240
Justice and Truth

Oval diptych
Hans Troschel II, 1620-1634
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c.1985
7532
Scenes of Virtue
241
Ottoman Turk and Native American

figures on one leaf contrast with a
European man and woman on
the other leaf.
Rectangular ivory diptych
Thomas Ducher, Nuremberg, 1620-1645
7579
Scenes of Virtue
242
Foreign Time
Sundials from Japan and China offer us a glimpse of Far Eastern hours and aesthetics.
(above)
Compendium with scaphe sundial,
compass, and two magnifying lenses
Transferred from the
7965
(at left)
Chinese wooden diptych with leopard
7445
Foreign Time
243
Scaphe sundial and magnetic compass

on carving of a fish with a rat
Tsurugi, Japanese, c. 1600
7974
Foreign Time
244
Silver crab atop clamshell that opens

to reveal a sundial and compass
7983
Foreign Time
245
Scaphe sundial, cardinal-directions indicator,

and magnetic compass in ornamental box
7992
Foreign Time
246
Chapter 1 4
Time on the Road
Pocket sundials were the all the rage between 1450 and 1825,
with styles to suit every purse and profession.
Portable Sundials
Sundials had gazetteers, enabling
traveling merchants and pilgrims
to set them up properly at different
latitudes. By displaying hours in
Italian, German, English and other
styles, the sundials helped travelers
to keep their appointments in
foreign cities.
Augsburg-type dial
Joseph Daniel Mayer, Augsburg, 1675
Gift of Philip Hofer to Houghton Library,
Harvard University, 1981. Long term loan from the
Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library
to the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
HO81Z-12
Fashion dictated the style of

sundial one might own. Sundials
with little birds marking the
latitude were favorites in Paris.
Rectangular folding books were
desired in Nuremberg. Augsburgs
denizens liked Baroque dials
fitted with plumb-bobs and hours
marked on circular rings.
(detail of gazetteer on following page)
Chapter 14: Time on the Road
Portable Sundials
248
Augsburg-type dial
Joseph Daniel Mayer, Augsburg, 1675
Gift of Philip Hofer to Houghton Library, Harvard University, 1981.
Long term loan from the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts,
Houghton Library to the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
HO81Z-12
Diverse German Fashions

For finding the time at home or on
the road, German instrument makers
offered many different styles of pocket
sundials to their customers. All of
these could be set up for easy use at
different latitudes.
Mechanical equatorial dial

reading time to the minute
Al. Zimmerman, Germany, c. 1840
7487
250
Inclining dial
A rotating disk on the cover tells the user the
lengths of day and night, and times of sunrise
and sunset during the year.
Marcus Purmann, Munich, 1601
7204
251
Pop-up equatorial dial

When the user pushes a button, the sundial
pops open to the latitude previously set.
Johann Martin, Augsburg, 1670-1720
Harvard University,
7071
252
Universal ring dial

Johann Willebrand, Augsburg, 1703-1726
7906
above: ring dial is open

at left: ring dial is closed
Silver Augsburg-type dial that

came with an instruction sheet
Johann Schrettegger,
Augsburg, late 18th century
7476
(case not shown; front and back of

instruction sheet on following pages)
254
Make Way for Ducklings

In Paris, sundials with bird-gnomons
were all the rage after their introduction
by Michael Butterfield around 1675.
After consulting the gazetteer on the
underside of the sundial, the user
adjusted the angle of the triangular
gnomon so that the little birds beak
pointed to the correct latitude.
Butterfield-type sundial
Pierre Sevin and Michael Butterfield,
Paris, c. 1675-1685
7012
Make Way for Ducklings
257
Mrs. Mallard leads her broodJack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack
to the Boston Public Garden Lagoon.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f )
(g)
(h)
(i)
(from previous page)
Mama Bird:
(a) Butterfield-type sundial

H. Sykes, Paris, c. 1785
7040
Her brood:
(b) Butterfield-type sundial

Pierre Sevin and Michael Butterfield,
Paris, c. 1675-1685
Harvard University,
7012
(c) Butterfield-type sundial
Pierre Sevin, Paris, c. 1675-1685
Harvard University,
7037
(d) Butterfield-type sundial
Michael Butterfield, Paris, c. 1700
Harvard University,
7011
(e) Butterfield-type sundial
Nicolas Bion, Paris, c. 1681-1733
(f) Butterfield-type sundial

Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas Delure,
Paris, c. 1695-1736
7020
(g) Butterfield-type sundial
Sautout, Paris, c. 1700
Harvard University,
7039
(h) Inclining horizontal dial
with bird gnomon
Pierre Le Maire II, Paris, c. 1730-1760

Harvard University,
7065
(i) Portable cannon dial with bird gnomon
A bit of gunpowder goes in the cannon.
The midday sun ignites it by means of
the burning lens.
J. Neuschler, Palermo, late 19th century
Harvard University,
7878

Harvard University,
7004
The lagoon (at left):

Garden dial with mirror for watching
clouds and an equation of time for
setting watches.
This sundial was highly commended at
the Ohio State Fair in 1857.
W. W. Wilson, Pittsburgh, c. 1857
Harvard University,
7394
Diptych Sundials for

Savvy Travelers
Sundials with two leaves that fold together are known as diptychs. Nuremberg,
Germany and Dieppe, France were the biggest producers of ivory diptychs.
The Nuremberg diptychs typically had a string for the gnomon which was aligned
with the earths axis by means of the inset magnetic compass. Moving the string
from one hole to another adjusted the gnomon for different latitudes.
Ivory diptych, Nuremberg-style

String-gnomon dial in diptych
Joseph Ducher, Nuremberg, 1640-1644
Gift of Philip Hofer to Houghton Library,
Long term loan from the Department of
Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library
to the Collection of Historical Scientific
Instruments, Harvard University, 1991
7899
Diptych Sundials for Savvy Travelers
260
The Dieppe sundials often used the compass needle to indicate the hour on an
adjustable scale inside the compass box when the shadow of the upright leaf fell
directly over the horizontal leaf. This was useful for a single region, but sundials on
other faces of the diptych were adjustable for different latitudes. Sometimes within the
compass box there was a Guide Michelin listing cities and their attractions.
Ivory diptych, Dieppe-style,

with a travelers guide in the base
Magnetic azimuth dial in diptych
Jacques Guerard, Dieppe, 1660-1680
Gift of David P. Wheatland
7507
(detail on next page)
261
By rotating the calendar scale, which is on the underside of the

sundial, the user adjusts the hour scale inside the compass box,
so that time may be read by the compass needle.
(at left)
Paper-covered wooden diptych
David Beringer, Nuremberg, 1777-1821
7431
(below)
Sunwatch horizontal dial with original box
Ansonia Clock Co., New York, c. 1930
7913
263
Single-Latitude Sundials
for Stay-at-Home Folks
Not all pocket sundials were
designed to travel very far.
These were made for single
latitudes and of materials to
suit every pocketbook.
Painted wooden diptych with the suns

azimuth indicated on the wind rose
German, c. 1825
7441
Single-Latitude Sundials for Stay-at-Home Folks
264
Gilt brass diptych
Paper-covered wooden diptych
Christoph Schissler, Augsburg, 1582
Thomas Lehner, Geiselhring, c. 1720

7452

7440
Wooden diptych with punched numerals

and incised lines
Painted wooden diptych
Karner workshop, Nuremberg, c. 1750

7436
German, c. 1750
7439
Floating dial
A tiny sundial mounted on a magnetic compass card
German, c. 1800
7347
Single-Latitude Sundials for Stay-at-Home Folks
266
Bird of a political feather

String-gnomon dial
C. H. Schindler, Germany, early 18th century
7231
Time on your hands

Finger-ring equatorial sundial
Japanese, early 19th century
7956
Time on your hands
268
I can see you now

Compass dial with mirror and lens
English, c. 1700
7243
I can see you now
269
Chapter 1 5
Timelines of History
There are many ways to graph historical time
as rivers flowing into each other, as spiraling events,
and even as animals and people.
Polyhedral Sundials
Scenes of Virtue
(on previous pages)
Discus chronologicus
Christoph Weigel, Discus chronologicus regum

utriusque Siciliae et ducum principumque
Italiae praecipuorum (Nuremberg, 1720).
Harvard Map Collection, Harvard College Library
Second Century of the Bear

Johannes Buno, Historische Bilder darinnen Idea
historiae universalis (Luneberg, 1672).
*45-903
Fifteenth Century of the Pope

Johannes Buno, Historische Bilder darinnen Idea
historiae universalis (Luneberg, 1672).
*45-903
Streams of Time
Samuel G. Goodrich, Universal History Illustrated:
or the Stream of Time, made Visible (New York, 1841).
G3201.E1 1841 .G6
Time on a colossal statue

Matthaeus Seutter, Colossus monarchicus statua Danielis
(Augsburg, 1730).
G301.S1 1720 .S4
A New Chart of History

Joseph Priestley, A new chart of history:
To Benjamin Franklin LL.D. F.R.S. this chart is,
in testimony of esteem & friendship,
inscribed by his most obliged humble servt.
(London, 1769).
G3201.S1 1769 .P7
Chapter 1 6
Time and Personal Memory
The past is never dead. Its not even past.
W illiam Faulkner
Journals
Personal recollections, particularly of
family events, and treasured objects
shape our sense of time.
People record personally significant
events in dated journals. Sukies
baby book links the newborn to
her ancestors on the family tree. It
records the time of birth, first smile,
first words, first steps, and other key
stages in her life along with a time
series of photographs from 1934. The
diaries of David Gordon Lyon, curator
of the Semitic Museum, take us with
him hour-by-hour, day-by-day on his
archaeological exploration of Sebastia,
Palestine in 1907-1908.
Journal of David Gordon Lyon

Sebastia, April 1, 1907-1908
Harvard Semitic Museum
Chapter 16: Time and Personal Memory Journals
279
Babys Autobiography
Baby book of Susan (Sukie) Hilles Bush, 1934
Harvard University, Susan Morse Hilles Papers,
series IV 221v, MC 463, box 19
Chapter 16: Time and Personal Memory Journals
280
Notches on a
Cheyenne Hide Flesher
This is a womans tool. Made of elk antler and fitted with a metal blade, a Cheyenne
woman used it to scrape the flesh from hides of bison, antelope, elk, or mule deer
once they were stretched and staked.
Women did the heavy labor of processing hides and making tipis, clothing, and
containers. They prided themselves on their work and were honored for doing a
good job. Some had special skills and rights to work with certain materials or make
ceremonial things. Higher status was given to women who made complex objects
like a lodge or fancy garment or ritual object.
To keep track of their accomplishments, women incised lines on their fleshers.
The lines might represent her children, the number of tipis she made, or a record of
other important work. The meaning of the tally lines was personal choice.
Often women handed down their tools to their daughters or nieces for several
generations.
(image on next page)
Chapter 16: Time and Personal Memory
Notches on a Cheyenne Hide Flesher
281
Hide flesher (and detail image)

Cheyenne, Wyoming, 19th century
Ethnology, Harvard University, PM# 98527-10/59390 (digital file# 99110012,
99110014). Bequest of William H. Claflin, Jr.,
1985.
Chapter 16: Time and Personal Memory
Notches on a Cheyenne Hide Flesher
282
Chapter 1 7
The End of Time
Often the end is just another beginning, but the end of time
would be the end of endings and beginnings. It would be a
moment when there is no after.
For Time to End Seems

Both Impossible and Inevitable
Will our world come to an end? In
five billion years, astrophysics tells us
that our sun will swell up and engulf
the earth. What about the universe?
As it continues to expand and evolve,
will time endure?
Diverse religions have different
visions of the end of time. Some see
an apocalypse and Day of Judgment.
Others see destruction followed by a
new creation. And yet others believe
that the world and time will remain
in eternal balance.
Deluge
Beatus of Libana (d. 798), Commentarius in Apocalypsin
French manuscript, 1072
Bibliothque Nationale, Paris, Latin 8878
Wikimedia Commons
Chapter 17: The End of Time
Certainly our personal time will

come to an end. The memento mori
images in art remind us that time
keeps company with death. Make
haste. Use your time wisely and for
the good of others.

Impossible and Inevitable
284
Memento mori
f STC 25900
Live, ever mindfull of thy dying;

For, Time is always from thee flying.
Memento mori showing a skull on a
winged sand glass, with a cortege in
the background.
f STC 25900

285
Death and the Standing Naked One

Hans Sebald Beham, 1547
http://www.hans-sebald-beham.com/
(on next page)
Morgan Apocalypse
English and French manuscript, 1255-1260
Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, M. 524
Wikimedia Commons

286
Grave Marker
Female Palmyrene bust
Palmyra, central Syria, 2nd century CE
Bone Collector
Limestone ossuary and lid
possibly from a Silwan tomb, Palestine
Second Temple period, 40 BCE - 135 CE

288
Funeral Blues
W. H. Auden, Another Time (New York, 1940).
Copyright The Estate of W. H. Auden, 1976.
Quoted with the permission of Curtis Brown Ltd.

289
Quartet for the End of Time

Composed and first performed in a Nazi prisoner-of-war
camp, the quartet was written for the instruments available.
Olivier Messiaen, Stalag VIII-A, near Grlitz, Germany, 1940
Private Collection

290
Doomsday Clock:
Two Minutes to Midnight
The Doomsday Clock symbolizes how
close we are to destroying our civilization
with powerful technologies of our own
making. It first appeared on the cover
of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in
1947 to convey the dangers of the nuclear
arms race. Today it also reflects the
dangers of climate-changing technologies
and of emerging biological and cyber
technologies that could bring about our
own destruction through misapplication,
madness, or accident.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
October 1953
(on next page)
We Live in an Age of Peril

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
October 1953
Doomsday Clock
291
Death Comes A-Knocking

Sundials were decorated with
images reminding people not
to waste time.
While a boy sleeps next to a sand glass (above),

an angel delivers the warning Remember that you
are ashes and to ashes you will return (below)
Gilt brass diptych
German, 1587
Harvard University
7455
293
Boy with sand glass leans against a skull that

has a snake going through the eye sockets
Ivory diptych
Michael Lesel, Nuremberg, 1613-1629
7559
294
Where will I go from here?

A skull on top of a winged sand glass adorns
the center of the wind rose
Compass dial
John Robins, England, c. 1700
7253
295
The end crowns all,

And that old common arbitrator, Time,
W ill one day end it.
William Shakespeare
Troilus and Cressida. Act IV. Scene 5.

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Time and Time Again

2014 President and Fellows of Harvard College

Chapter title page: Otto van Veen, Quinti Horatii

Other images are credited

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;

Creation of Time ........................................................................ 13

Western Time .............................................................................

Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars ............ 27

Natural Time ..........................................................................

Cyclical Time ..........................................................................

What Does Time Look Like?.................................................. 81

Atomic Time................................................................................ 154

In Time Together ...................................................................... 158

Dance, Drill, and Timed Movement .............................. 159

Business of Time ...................................................................... 176

William Bond & Son ........................................................... 177