Science Museum Group

Description

Tracing its origins from the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Science Museum has pioneered interactive science interpretation for more than eight decades and is the most visited museum in the UK by school groups. Among key objects on display are Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 1 (c.1832), Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE computer (1950), and the Apollo 10 capsule that went into lunar orbit in 1969.

The Science Museum Group holds an international collection of objects and library, photographic and archive material relating to science, technology, medicine, transport, media and industry. From medieval anatomical votives to 1980s personal computers, it is incredibly varied. Each museum in the Group specialises in an area of the collection.

The Science Museum’s Research and Public History Department maintains a thriving research programme that promotes new ways of understanding the Science Museum's collections, audiences and exhibitions. It stages conferences, workshops and events and supports grant applications led by the museum and partner universities.

Between 2016 and 2022 the Science Museum Group ran the Science Museum Group Lab, a digital research and experimentation programme that published its work openly under its own name. Established with founding sponsorship from Samsung, it explored digital approaches to collections, audiences and museum practice, its projects including Heritage Connector, an AHRC-funded collaboration with the School of Advanced Study, University of London and the Victoria and Albert Museum that used linked open data to connect digitised museum collections. The Lab has been dormant since May 2022.

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

1851

Contact details

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Partner Infrastructures

School of Advanced Study (SAS)

The School of Advanced Study (SAS) plays a unique role in fostering collaborative, innovative, and distinctive research in the humanities. It also aims to equip researchers with the skills necessary t… read more about School of Advanced Study (SAS)

London

Victoria and Albert Museum

The V&A was the first museum in the world to establish a dedicated Research Department and it continues to be a core activity of the Museum today. It plays a leading role in binding together the f… read more about Victoria and Albert Museum

London