I decided to get some experience restoring an old globe of my great-grandmothers as part of my learning experience on historical preservation. This globe had been in my grandparents’ house since I can remember, and my mother remembers it being in her grandmother’s house way before I was born. I remember turning the bulb on and off that was installed inside the globe. When my grandfather passed away in 2003, my parents ended up bringing it to Ft. Myers, Florida, where both them and I currently live. Over the past couple of months, I have been working on restoring it, with the help of Matt Andres, a curator where I work at the Edison Ford Winter Estates. He had given me suggestions on the process of restoring this beautiful globe. Here are photos of when I first started the project.
I first decided to research the history with Matt’s help. I was mainly researching to see when the globe was produced. I was able to determine that the Replogle globe was produced sometime between 1932 and 1935, because it shows that the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, in which the latter gained independence from the UK, became independent countries in 1932. Persia was historically known as Iran but in 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi asked foreign delegates to use the name Iran and it was from then on, that the name changed on maps and globes. Upon opening the inside to inspect the inner lighting fixture, I found that work must have been done on it before because of wiring being unprofessionally soldered together, even though the wiring was electrically sound. The plug leads were well bent but I was able to fix this by bending it back into shape with pliers. There is damage to the outer map image itself, with scratches and wear, but I figure that if I decide to have that repaired, it will have to be professionally done. This would be a later task if I decide to invest the money.
I used Orvus cleaner to help restore the wood and later used Renaissance Wax to polish it. The hardest part of the job was setting the legs and support for the globe in place so it could be glued back together, which took both my father and I to set right. The four legs had to be positioned and held up by one of us while the cross support that holds the globe in place had to be positioned so the dowels connecting everything had to be in place and glued at the same time. Once it was all together, I let it sit a few days and just today returned to my parents’ house to make sure it dried properly before setting the globe inside the frame. Here are photos of the result today!
Thanks for learning!
Chet Wallace
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