Science Museum (London)
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The Science Museum on Exhibition Road, Kensington, London, is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction.
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Origin
A museum was founded in 1857 under Bennet Woodcroft from the collection of the Royal Society of Arts and surplus items from the Great Exhibition. It was initially part of the South Kensington Museum, together with what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum, but was separated and became the Museum of Patents in 1858, the Patent Office Museum in 1863. This museum contained many of the most famous exhibits of what is now the Science Museum. In 1885, the Science Collections were renamed the Science Museum and in 1893 a separate Director was appointed. The Art Collections were renamed the Art Museum, which became the Victoria and Albert Museum nearby. The Patent Office Museum was merged into the Science Museum in 1909.
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Collections
The Science Museum now holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including such famous items as Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy (another early locomotive), the first jet engine, Francis Crick and James Watson's model of DNA, some of the earliest remaining steam engines, a working example of Charles Babbage's Difference engine, and the first prototype of the 10,000-year Clock of the Long Now. It also contains hundreds of interactive exhibits. A recent addition is the IMAX Theatre showing science and nature documentaries, some of them in 3-D. Entrance has been free since December 1, 2001.
The museum also houses some of the many objects collected by Henry Wellcome around a medical theme. These are displayed up on the 4th and 5th floors, although the objects on display are a fracton of the overall collection. The Science Museum has a dedicated library, and until the 1960s was Britain's National Library for Science, Medicine and Technology. It holds runs of periodicals, early books and manuscripts, and is used by scholars world-wide. It has for a number of years been run in conjunction with the Library of Imperial College, but in 2004 the Museum was unable to bear its share of the cost, so options are being discussed for the library's break-up and dispersal. [1]
The Dana Centre
In November 2003, the Science Museum opened the Dana Centre. The Centre is a groundbreaking urban bar and café annexed to the Museum, and is presently the UK’s only dedicated venue for adults to discuss controversial science. The Dana Centre is a young, controversial and experimental venue which exists to challenge public perception about science and tackle contemporary issues head on. It has become notorious for innovative events including stand-up comics debunking science myths to a live heart by-pass operation, as well as debates, art installations and live experiments.
Galleries
The Science Museum is made up of a number of galleries, some of which are permanent, and some of which are temporary.
Power: The East Hall
The East Hall is the first area that most visitors see as they enter the building, stretching up through three floors. On the ground, the area is mostly filled with iconic steam engines of various sorts, which together tell the story of the British industrial revolution. Up in the air, suspended from the ceiling is giant metallic ring, the inside of which is covered in white LEDs which form patterns and display messages typed into kiosks by visitors in the Energy gallery.
Also in the East Hall is a bookshop and the Revolution café.
Space
Space is a historic gallery, filled with rockets and exhibits that tell the story of human space exploration and the benefits that space exploration has brought us (particularly in the world of telecommunications).
Making the Modern World
Making the Modern World is a relatively new gallery, in which some of the museum's most iconic objects, including Stephenson's Rocket and an Apollo space capsule, are imaginatively displayed along a timeline chronicling man's technological achievements.
Flight
Flight is another longstanding gallery, up towards the western end of the third floor. Contained in the gallery is a huge number of full sized aeroplanes and helicopters, as well as numerous engines and a cross-section of a Boeing 747.
Location
The museum is adjacent to the Natural History Museum and used to be connected to it by a public corridor, which is now closed. The closest London Underground station is South Kensington; a subway connects the museums to the station.
Refurbishment
The Science Museum is undergoing a series of refurbishments as part of a vision to update the museum. The East Hall has been finished and the renovated museum shop opened in October 2005.
Directors of the Science Museum
The Directors of the South Kensington Museum were:
- Henry Cole CB (1857–1873)
- Sir Philip Cuncliffe-Owen KCB KCMG CIE (1873–1893)
The Directors of the Science Museum have been:
- Major-General E. R. Festling CB FRS (1893–1904)
- W. I. Last (1904–1911)
- Sir Francis Ogilvie CB (1911–1920)
- Colonel Sir Henry Lyons FRS (1920–1933)
- Colonel E. E. B. Mackintosh DSO (1933–1945)
- Dr H. Shaw (1945–1950)
- Dr F. Sherwood Taylor (1950–1956)
- Dr T. Morrison-Scott DSc FMA (1956–1960)
- Sir David Follett FMA (1960–1973)
- Dame Margaret Weston DBE FMA (1973–1986)
- Sir Neil Cossons OBE FSA FMA (1986–2000)
- Dr Lindsay Sharp (2000–2005)
- Prof Martin Earwicker (appointed March 2006, to begin May 2006)
See also
External links
- Science Museum website
- National Museum of Science and Industry website
- Dana Centre website
- Ingenious Project website
- Making the Modern World website
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