The Babson Globe is a globe located in the campus of

Babson College Babson College is a Private university, private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States specializing in entrepreneurship education. Founded in 1919 by Roger Babson, the college was established as the Babson Institute in his We ...

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of M ...

. Weighing 25 tons and with a diameter of , it was the world's largest rotating globe when it was built in 1955. Mappamondo della pace, located in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, surpassed Babson's record in 1988. The globe was an idea of

Roger Babson Roger Ward Babson (July 6, 1875 – March 5, 1967) was an American entrepreneur, economist, and business theorist in the first half of the 20th century. He is best remembered for founding Babson College. He also founded Webber College, now Webbe ...

, the college's founder. He came up with the idea of building the globe in 1947 as a way of promoting interest in world affairs. In the first years, the globe attracted thousands of visitors annually, but by the late 1970s, the globe had fallen into disrepair. The porcelain-baked steel tiles that covered the globe (recreating the continents and oceans) fell off in 1984 and for the next 9 years the globe looked like a big and rusted ball. In addition, during the 1980s, the machinery that made the globe spin stopped working. Due to the state of disrepair, in 1988 the administration of the college decided to demolish the globe. In response, students and faculty led by C. Christopher Lingamfelter and Professor Larry Meile formed a committee called "Save the Globe", which was able to raise funds to restore the globe. In 1993 the globe was restored, featuring 506 vinyl panels and the most advanced

satellite imagery Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell im ...

available at the time. In 2018, the globe was restored again and moved from Coleman Hall to the Kerry Murphy Healey Park, where it was unveiled in May 2019, as part of the centennial commemoration of the college.

References

Globes Babson College {{map-stub

See also

References