Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

“Monkey” microscope reproduction

Quite large and unusual microscope reproduction, with an height of about 40 cm, closely resembling a “monkey microscope” that was at some point available for selling in a North American website (www.scitechantiques.com/2046/2046.html). The instrument in this website, according to the authors, was most likely a “spoof on Darwinism” and was engraved with the name of the maker “A. Van Emden, Amsterdam” (Figure 1). After Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) suggested that humans were descended from the primates, several cartoons and caricatures were published illustrating Darwin as an ape or monkey (Figure 4). This was apparent in another well-known example of a figurative caricature of Darwin in the form of the famous “monkey microscope” made by M. Moreau (1805 – 1880) in Paris during the second half of 19^th century (Figure 2). However, regarding the instrument in the North American website, dating doesn’t seem to be consistent since Abraham van Emden (1794 – 1860) was a Dutch scientific instrument maker until 1860, and Charles Darwin first explicitly suggested that humans and primates share a common ancestor only in his 1871 book “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”. Another modern reproduction of a monkey microscope is illustrated in Figure 3.

Figure 1. Monkey microscope as featured in the North American website www.scitechantiques.com/2046/2046.html (accessed 27 June 2025). According to the authors, the instrument was engraved with the name of the maker “A. Van Emden, Amsterdam”.

Figure 2.  Moreau’s monkey microscope as featured in the 1889 volume of the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, in which the toy instrument was described as “This microscope …, by M. Moreau of Paris was exhibited at the December meeting of the Society. In its design art as well as science has been drawn on, for instead of an ordinary base and pillar a figure of a monkey is introduced which holds in its hands the stage and mirror, while the cross-arm carrying the body-tube and socket is screwed to the top of its head”. Moreau’s original monkey microscope was very small, with the stage height around 4 cm and, when focused on an object, the eye level around 10 cm above the surface.

Figure 3. Modern “monkey” microscope reproduction as featured on the website www.artcurial.com/en/sales/3943/lots/101-a (accessed 27 June 2025). According to the authors, this instrument was made by Rafael San Marcial (a Spanish restorer of antique scientific instruments) and belonged at some point to the Camacho - Pallas collection.

Figure 4. Charles Darwin’s cartoon published in The Hornet magazine on 22 March 1871, at the time as a reference to his recently published book Descent of man. This is likely the most famous caricature depicting Darwin as an ape or monkey - see “Caricatures of Charles Darwin” by John van Wyhe (https://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_Caricatures_of_Darwin.html).