George Fisher (1794-1873) began his working life working for the Westminster Insurance Company but soon, with the help of a number of very influential men of science, on whom he had made an impression, became a student at the University of Cambridge in 1817. He completed his studies, took holy orders and became a navy chaplain joining most famously Captain Parry's expedition to find the North-West Passage between 1821 and 1823 as their astronomer/ chaplain. In 1825 he was elected FRS and then FRAS in 1827 (technically FAS since the Astronomical Society did not become the Royal Astronomical Society until 1831). He joined two further navy voyages as Chaplain, HMS 'Spartiate' and HMS 'Asia' in the Mediterranean in 1828 before becoming Headmaster and later Principal of the Greenwich Hospital School where among other things he was responsible for erecting an astronomical observatory (on the site that currently houses the NMM carpark).

Over the course of his life, work and travels, George Fisher accumulated a sizable collection of books, scientific instruments and botanical samples (mainly from his arctic explorations). This collection was given to the NMM by Fisher's granddaughter, Miss Darnell, in 1858 with a small collection of classifed arctic plants being transferred, with the family's approval, to the Natural History section of the British Museum.

This drum type microscope, from Fisher's collection, is thought to date from his time as chaplain and astronomer with the Parry expedition and could plausibly have been used to examine some of the botanical samples he brought back with him from the arctic.