Ellen Eliza Fitz

Ellen Eliza Fitz was born in 1835 in Kingston, New Hampshire. When she was a child, she moved to Massachusetts and grew up in Lynnfield and Newton. She grew to be scholarly and curious, spending most of her time as a teenager translating classical texts, such as the Eclogues of Virgil and publishing poetry.[1] In 1853, at the age of 18, Fitz graduated from the West Newton State Normal School. She then worked as a music teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her passion for educating blossomed. She also developed a passion for map making, which would later turn in to an extraordinary innovation. In her adulthood, Fitz spent a significant amount of her time in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, where she worked as a governess and educator.[2] In New Brunswick, her ideas for the design, production, and manufacture for the globe and globe mounting system began.

Fitz died 4 years after receiving her second patent, at the age of 51, in the year 1866. She died from an unknown long illness in Watertown, Massachusetts, but her legacy lives on, and was extremely prevalent in the late 19th century and early 20th century. “Object teaching” was being heavily promoted during this time, and students learned mainly through interacting with various toys, objects, and demonstrations. This is why the globe and the globe mountain were so heavily used during this time. Teaching has transitioned to being more reliant on technology, and less on physical models, so the globe is gradually becoming obsolete. However, it is still a useful tool for younger children who benefit from visual demonstration and aren’t equipped to use computers just yet.

Selected publications

• Fitz, Ellen E. (1876). Hand-book of the terrestrial globe : or, guide to Fitz's new method of mounting and operating globes, designed for the use of families, schools, and academies / by Ellen E. Fitz. University of California Libraries. Boston : Ginn Brothers.

• Fitz, Ellen E. (1853). Collected papers.
• Globe as a Gift: All You Need to Know