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Science museum

Museum focused on science topics

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  • 4 chapters

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While the mission statements of science centres and modern museums may vary, they are commonly places that make science accessible and encourage the excitement of discovery.

History

As early as the Renaissance period, aristocrats collected curiosities for display. Universities, and in particular medical schools, also maintained study collections of specimens for their students. Scientists and collectors displayed their finds in private cabinets of curiosities. Such collections were the predecessors of modern natural history museums.

In 1683, the first purpose-built museum covering natural philosophy, the original Ashmolean museum (now called the Museum of the History of Science) in Oxford, England, was opened, although its scope was mixed.

This was followed in 1752 by the first dedicated science museum, the Museo de Ciencias Naturales, in Madrid, which almost did not survive Francoist Spain. Today, the museum works closely with the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas).

The Utrecht University Museum, established in 1836, and the Netherlands' foremost research museum, displays an extensive collection of 18th-century animal and human "rarities" in its original setting.

More science museums developed during the Industrial Revolution, when great national exhibitions showcased the triumphs of both science and industry. An example is the Great Exhibition in 1851 at The Crystal Palace, London, England, surplus items from which contributed to the Science Museum, London, founded in 1857.

In the United States of America, various natural history Societies established collections in the early 19th century. These later evolved into museums. A notable example is the New England Museum of Natural History (now the Museum of Science) which opened in Boston in 1864. Another was the Academy of Science, St. Louis, founded in 1856, the first scientific organisation west of the Mississippi. Although the organisation managed scientific collections for several decades, a formal museum was not created until the mid-20th century.

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