Hollow copper globe, just 112 mm in diameter.

This striking terrestrial globe dates to approximately 1510 and bears a strong resemblance to the Globus Jagellonicus housed at the Collegium Maius Museum in Krakow. What makes the Hunt-Lenox Globe unique is that it is one of only two known instances of a historical map using the phrase “HC SVNT DRACONES” (“here be dragons”).

The Hunt-Lenox Globe is recognized as one of the oldest terrestrial globes, and the oldest to depict the Americas. Purchased “for a song” in Paris in 1855 by American architect Richard Morris Hunt, it was at first seen as a mere novelty. It wasn’t until bookdealer Henry Stevens noted its significance that Hunt donated the globe to the Lenox Library—James Lenox’s vast collection of paintings, books and other artifacts—for which he was the chief architect.