James Wilson, born in Londonderry, N.H., in 1763, was a farmer and blacksmith who moved to Bradford in 1795 and established his home and workshop there. He taught himself astronomy and geography and studied engraving with Amos Doolittle in CT, skills he needed to make globes. Between 1808 and 1810, Wilson made and sold the first terrestrial and celestial globes in North America. He died in Bradford in 1855 at the age of 92.