Category Archives: Museums

Objects and storytelling

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Rebekah Higgitt

Some weeks ago on the Medical Museion blog, Thomas Soderqvist wrote an interesting and, perhaps, provocative post on Narrativity in exhibition making, suggesting that “the current enthusiasm” for stories, storytelling and narrative in object displays “is problematic”. As an historian, … Continue reading →

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Science in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Rebekah Higgitt

Last week I was back in Edinburgh and visited the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. This has just reopened after renovations and I took time to consider the depiction of science in the murals of its Main Hall, and a new display … Continue reading →

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Visiting Woolsthorpe

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Rebekah Higgitt

Recently, on an evocatively misty day, I finally had the chance to visit Woolsthorpe Manor, the National Trust property that was once Isaac Newton’s family home. It was, you might think, high time I did so, given my interest in Newton’s … Continue reading →

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[Review] Richard Owen. Biology Without Darwin.

Posted on July 8, 2011 by John M. Lynch

Nicolass Rupke. Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin. xxiv + 344pp., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. $29.00, (paper). The Natural History Museum in London recently unveiled its Darwin Center, the most significant expansion of the Museum since it opened at its present site in … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Book Reviews, History, Institutions, Museums, Religion | 1 Comment

Fictional science

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Rebekah Higgitt

Yesterday, I went to the British Library’s exhibition on science fiction, Out of this World, which does an immensely good job of making exhibition cases displaying little but books interesting and engaging. There are graphics, a select number of objects, … Continue reading →

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Sympathetic vibrations

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Rebekah Higgitt

Over at PACHSmörgåsbord, brought to us by the Philadelphia Area Centre for History of Science, Darin Hayton has been catching the longitude vibe while investigating the collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia. He describes an anonymous 1688 pamphlet that, famously for those who … Continue reading →

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Living Traditions at the Science Museum

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Rebekah Higgitt

How would you feel if I told you that the Science Museum says that homeopathy and acupuncture, as medical treatments, are no more effective than drumming or divination? Satisfied? I hope so.

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What are science museums for?

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Rebekah Higgitt

There has of late been a lot of attention focused on one small corner of the Science Museum of London. Not, sadly, the Science in the 18th Century Gallery I mentioned in a previous post but an exhibit within the … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Museums | Tagged , , , | 79 Comments