Holcomb

and others, he attempted to establish a Lyceum
Village at Berea, Ohio, where until 1852 he was
engaged in the manufacture of globes for class-
room use. The Lyceum Village collapsed after
a few years, however, and plans for a "central
Lyceum Village" in the neighborhood of New
York failed to materialize. Holbrook resided in
New York, 1842-49, as secretary of a central
bureau, part of his original lyceum scheme,
through which lecture courses were arranged
and cabinets of minerals and other scientific
specimens and illustrations of the work of chil-
dren in the schools were exchanged. From 1849
until his death his home was in Washington, D.
C., where he continued to labor for the promotion
of the Lyceum system. Throughout his career he
carried on an extensive correspondence and was
a prolific writer of tracts and pamphlets. While
on an excursion to collect specimens of minerals
and plants in the vicinity of Lynchburg, Va., he
was drowned in Blackwater Creek. Two sons
survived him, one of whom, Alfred [q.v.], mani-
fested his enthusiasm for popular education in
the development of the National Normal Uni-
versity (later Lebanon University) at Lebanon,
Ohio.

[The chief sources for Holbrook's life and work are
his many writings in pamphlet form, particularly the
Self Instructor and Journal of the Universal Lyceum
for March 1841 and The American Lyceum or Society
for the Improvement of Schools and Diffusion of Uni-
versal Knowledge (1829). Biographies somewhat at
variance as to dates may be found in F. B. Dexter,
Biog. Sketches Grads. Yale Coll., vol. VI (1912) ; and
Henry Barnard's Am. Jour. Educ., Mar. 1860. See also
Am. Jour. Educ., Jan.-Feb. 1829 ; AutoUog. of Rev.
Charles Nichols, a Series of Letters to his Grand-
daughter (1881) ; J. J. Burns, Educ. Hist, of Ohio
(1905); Alfred Holbrook, Reminiscences (1885);
Samuel Orcutt and Ambrose Beardsley, The Hist, of
the Old Town of Derby, Conn. (1880) ; John S. Noff-
singer, Correspondence Schools, Lyceums, and Chau-
ttwquas (1926) ; Lynchburg Virginian, June 22, 1834;
National Intelligencer (Washington, D. C.), June 23,

D.C.K,

HOLCOMB, AMASA (June 18, i;87-Feb.
27, 1875), instrument maker, descended from
Thomas Holcomb who came to Dorchester,
Mass., in 1630, was born at Granby, Conn, (now
Southwick, Mass.), the son of Elijah and Lucy
(Holcomb) Holcomb. Elijah Holcomb, a farm-
er and cooper, was able to afford his son only the
scantiest education in the common school, but
the family came into possession of the extensive
library of an uncle who was lost at sea, and
Amasa with this help was able to gain a working
knowledge of the mathematical sciences. He ap-
plied himself so intensively that at fifteen he
obtained the position of teacher in the district
school at Suffield, Conn. Continuing his study of
mathematics and astronomy, in which he was
particularly interested, he observed the solar

Holcomb
eclipse in 1806, with apparatus of his own manu-
facture, and a year or two later undertook the
computation and publication of a series of alma-
nacs. He subsequently took students into his
home for instruction in advanced studies and for
a time supplemented this work with surveying to
gain a livelihood. To supply the needs of his stu-
dents as well as to equip himself, he entered
upon the making of compasses, dividers, scales,
and other instruments as a business, and soon
enjoyed more than a local reputation for the
quality of his products. Some time after 1825 he
began the manufacture of telescopes, first for his
own and his students' use, and later, as his repu-
tation grew, for general sale. Up to this time
most of the precision and optical apparatus in
use in America was made in Europe, and of tele-
scopes very few, if any, were of domestic manu-
facture. In the American Journal of Science and
Arts of January 1833, Prof. Benjamin Silliman
of Yale announced that Holcomb was making
spyglasses of every description, and achromatic
and reflecting telescopes. These latter were of
the type perfected by Sir William Herschel.
They were from eight to twelve feet in focal
length, and would "perform more than the im-
ported instruments of the same prices." Profes-
sor Olmsted, also of Yale, lent his name to the
announcement. In the same Journal for 1835,
Silliman added that Holcomb had "prosecuted
his enterprise with great diligence and ingenuity/'
and had brought his instruments "to a degree of
perfection, which enables them to sustain a very
honorable comparison with the large telescopes
imported from abroad." The simple mounting
was especially remarked. In the same year Hol-
comb submitted two telescopes to the Franklin
Institute of Philadelphia for examination. The
committee on science and the arts reported them
very favorably, commended the mounting, and
recommended Holcomb for an award and medal
from the John Scott legacy fund The following
year the same committee reported upon a tele-
scope made by Holcomb for Delaware College.
This instrument, which had a focal length of
fourteen feet, was described as superior to any
that Holcomb had hitherto made, and as having
"every attribute of excellence which the best
optical skill could give to an instrument of these
dimensions" (Journal of the FrankUn Institute,
November 1836, p. 312). With the introduction
of the Daguerreotype, Holcomb experimented in
photography and added cameras to the instru-
ments which he made. He was active in public
affairs, serving many terms after 1816 as a se-
lectman and assessor of Southwick, Mass. In
1832-33 he represented the town in the Massa-