The Observatory Museum

Grahamstown, South Africa

The Observatory is a unique multi-floored 19th century Victorian shop and home of Henry Carter Galpin, which today is a museum.  Dr William Guybon Atherstone had rooms in the building.   It was in the house that he identified the first diamond found in South Africa which became known as the Eureka stone.  (The Eureka stone is at present on display at the Big Hole in Kimberley.)

A feature of the Observatory is a special exhibition focusing on Dr William Guybon Atherstone and the five other main participants in the identification of the first diamond discovered in South Africa in 1867.  the owner-designer of the Observatory was a watchmake and jeweller, Henry Carter Galpin, who he still found time to pursue his interests of astronony, optics, natural history, music and practical mechanics - all of which are reflected in the house he designed.

Its unusual features include:

An Observatory, ingeniously combined with the Camera Obscura

A Meridian Room, from which astronomical time - GMT (Grahamstown's mean time) could be calculater.

A Clock, a miniature of the one constructed in 1883 for the new Royal Courts of Justice in London.  The pendulum swings in the Drawing Room and is decorated with a painting of Father Time by the Frontier artist Frederick Timpson I'Ons.

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© Copyright Margaret C Manning 2007