  We have studied the corona as seen at the eclipses of 1878, 1900, 1901 and
others. These eclipses occurred during extended sunspot minimum conditions. We
compare these data with those of the recent solar minimum corona, using data
from the eclipses of July 22 2009 and August 1 2008. An attempt to characterize
the global solar magnetic fields is made. We speculate on the origin of the
non-dipolar structure seen in the 2008 and 2009 eclipse images.
