Practically all the telescopes used by amateur scientists in 18th-century America were of European origin. Our dependence upon foreign sources for these instruments continued well into the 19th century, and the beginning of telescope making in this country has conventionally been associated with the names of Alvan Clark and John Brashear, whose work dates from the 1860’s.

Presented here are biographical sketches of two predecessors and a contemporary of Clark and Brashear whose obscurity is not deserved. The accounts relate some hitherto little-known aspects of telescope making in America as it progressed from mechanic art to science.