Full Text:

THE MARINERS MUSEUM RECEIVES

(with one photo)

NEWPORT NEWS, VA. -- The Mariner's Museum has announced that Peter Ifland,

renowned collector and author of Taking the Stars: Celestial Navigation from

Argonauts to Astronauts, has generously donated 169 instruments from his

unparalleled collection of navigation instruments to the museum.

In accepting the gift, museum president and CEO John Hightower remarked, "The

extraordinary gift of Peter Ifland's carefully assembled and thoughtfully

acquired collection complements the navigating instrument collection of The

Mariners' Museum perfectly. The result is America's largest and most

distinguished collection of magnificent scientific instruments that once were

essential to finding one's way across the uncharted expanse of the ever

uncertain sea."

"I chose The Mariners' Museum to receive my collection because of the museum's

preeminence in maritime history and the culture of the sea. The museum has

excellent facilities to preserve and display the artifacts in its world-class

collections," says Ifland.

Ifland's collection features rare objects such as a 1792 octant attributed to

J.R. Duiff and Sierd van Putten, a 1711 rosewood back staff made by Walter

Henshaw, a circa 1820 circle constructed by James Allen in London, and a circa

1920 gyrosextant made by La Precision Modern, Paris. The collection also

contains aviation navigation instruments such as a 1941 bubble sextant made by

the Bendix Aviation Corporation.

Objects from Ifland's collection will be incorporated into the museum's 1999

millennium exhibition "It's About TIme" and will be displayed in other museum

galleries to help visitors grasp the important concepts of celestial

navigation inextricably linked to maritime exploration.

Ifland first became interested in navigation instruments as a midshipman in

the US Naval Reserve during World War II. He then earned a doctorate in

biochemistry from the University of Texas. Ifland lived in Europe during the

1970s and there began collecting sextants and octants.

Willem Morzer Bruyns, navigation expert and senior curator of the

Scheepvaartmuseum (the Netherlands Maritime Museum), praised the collection,

saying, "Over the years Peter Ifland has built an immensely important

collection of navigating instruments, equal to the standard of any large

maritime museum in the world."

Ifland decided the unique nature of his collection and his extensive knowledge

of navigation instruments could form the basis for a comprehensive book about

celestial navigation. The result, Taking the Stars: Celestial Navigation from

Argonauts to Astronauts, has just been published by The Mariner's Museum and

Krieger Publishing Company.

For more information, 757/596-2222.

The museum is open from 10 am until 5 pm daily at 100 Museum Drive, Newport

News.