Clark Family

Clark, Alvan

BornAshfield, Massachusetts, USA, 8 March 1804

DiedCambridgeport, Massachusetts, USA, 19 August 1887

Clark, Alvan Graham

BornFall River, Massachusetts, USA, 10 July 1832

DiedCambridgeport, Massachusetts, USA, 9 June 1897

Clark, George Bassett

BornLowell, Massachusetts, USA, 14 February 1827

DiedCambridgeport, Massachusetts, USA, 20 December 1891

In the history of astronomy, there has rarely been a family of telescope makers quite like that of Alvan Clark and his sons Alvan Graham Clark and George Bassett Clark. In the later half of the nineteenth century, few manufacturers, either in America or abroad, could match the quality reputation of the firm of Alvan Clark & Sons. The Clark firm produced nearly 600 telescopes in a 50-year span while never employing more than a handful of workers. From the time they began work in the early 1860s on their first large refractor, an 18.5-in. telescope intended for the University of Mississippi, to their final masterpiece in 1897, the...