Description Elijah Burritt (1794-1838), a Connecticut schoolteacher, created his atlas as a low-cost alternative to celestial globes, which were then the preferred means of teaching astronomy but were too expensive for many schools to afford. Along with its accompanying textbook The Geography of the Heavens, Burritts atlas sold for $1.25 in 1833 more expensive than other introductory astronomy texts but still much cheaper than a globe. The atlas proved immensely popular.