History of science and the Science Museum

British Journal for the History of Science

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 47-50

  Bud, Robert ^a  

^a SCIENCE MUSEUM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HISTORY; INFORMATION CENTER; SCIENCE; UNITED KINGDOM;

GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORIOGRAPHY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; MUSEUMS; SCIENCE;

EID: 0031086791     PISSN: 00070874     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0007087496002907     Document Type: Article

References (24)

1. One indicator of the status of history of science is the continuing pattern of reviews of books within the field by reviewers from outside, often with extremely negative judgements of the author's competence. For an exchange in an American context, see Max Perutz, 'The private life of Louis Pasteur', New York Review of Books, 21 December 1995, and the subsequent correspondence entitled 'Pasteur and the culture wars: an exchange', New York Review of Books, 4 April 1996. In a British context, one more recent example, admittedly of a work more in the sociology than in the history of science, is Eric Laithwaite's review of Andrew Pickering's, The Mangle of Practice, 'Deep thinking in shallow waters', Times Higher Education Supplement, 21 June 1996. A counter- example is of course the great public interest in a few such works as Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin, London, 1991.
2. One indicator of the status of history of science is the continuing pattern of reviews of books within the field by reviewers from outside, often with extremely negative judgements of the author's competence. For an exchange in an American context, see Max Perutz, 'The private life of Louis Pasteur', New York Review of Books, 21 December 1995, and the subsequent correspondence entitled 'Pasteur and the culture wars: an exchange', New York Review of Books, 4 April 1996. In a British context, one more recent example, admittedly of a work more in the sociology than in the history of science, is Eric Laithwaite's review of Andrew Pickering's, The Mangle of Practice, 'Deep thinking in shallow waters', Times Higher Education Supplement, 21 June 1996. A counter- example is of course the great public interest in a few such works as Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin, London, 1991.
3. One indicator of the status of history of science is the continuing pattern of reviews of books within the field by reviewers from outside, often with extremely negative judgements of the author's competence. For an exchange in an American context, see Max Perutz, 'The private life of Louis Pasteur', New York Review of Books, 21 December 1995, and the subsequent correspondence entitled 'Pasteur and the culture wars: an exchange', New York Review of Books, 4 April 1996. In a British context, one more recent example, admittedly of a work more in the sociology than in the history of science, is Eric Laithwaite's review of Andrew Pickering's, The Mangle of Practice, 'Deep thinking in shallow waters', Times Higher Education Supplement, 21 June 1996. A counter- example is of course the great public interest in a few such works as Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin, London, 1991.
4. One indicator of the status of history of science is the continuing pattern of reviews of books within the field by reviewers from outside, often with extremely negative judgements of the author's competence. For an exchange in an American context, see Max Perutz, 'The private life of Louis Pasteur', New York Review of Books, 21 December 1995, and the subsequent correspondence entitled 'Pasteur and the culture wars: an exchange', New York Review of Books, 4 April 1996. In a British context, one more recent example, admittedly of a work more in the sociology than in the history of science, is Eric Laithwaite's review of Andrew Pickering's, The Mangle of Practice, 'Deep thinking in shallow waters', Times Higher Education Supplement, 21 June 1996. A counter- example is of course the great public interest in a few such works as Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin, London, 1991.
5. One indicator of the status of history of science is the continuing pattern of reviews of books within the field by reviewers from outside, often with extremely negative judgements of the author's competence. For an exchange in an American context, see Max Perutz, 'The private life of Louis Pasteur', New York Review of Books, 21 December 1995, and the subsequent correspondence entitled 'Pasteur and the culture wars: an exchange', New York Review of Books, 4 April 1996. In a British context, one more recent example, admittedly of a work more in the sociology than in the history of science, is Eric Laithwaite's review of Andrew Pickering's, The Mangle of Practice, 'Deep thinking in shallow waters', Times Higher Education Supplement, 21 June 1996. A counter-example is of course the great public interest in a few such works as Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin, London, 1991.
6. See the recent London University M.Sc. thesis by Dr Xerxes Mazda, of the Science Museum, 'The Changing Role of History in the Policy and Collections of the Science Museum: 1857-1973'. I am indebted to Dr Mazda for his overview. The 1996 SHOT conference included a session comparing the development of the National Museum of American History and the Science Museum. Papers are available from the Museum. A feasibility study for a broader historical investigation by a panel of historians is also underway.
7. See A.-K. Mayer, 'Moralizing science: the uses of science's past in national education in the 1920s', BJHS (1997), 30, 51-70.
8. The first secretary of the Newcomen Society was J. W. Dickinson, secretary to the Museum's Advisory Council. For examples of the Museum's historically oriented catalogues, see A. Barclay, Handbook of the Collections Illustrating Industrial Chemistry, London, 1929; or H. Shaw, with the assistance of J. McG. Bruckshaw and S. T. Newing, Applied Geophysics: A Brief Survey of the Development of Apparatus and Methods Employed in the Investigation of Subterranean Structural Conditions and the location of Mineral Deposits [with a catalogue of exhibits], London, 1931.
9. The first secretary of the Newcomen Society was J. W. Dickinson, secretary to the Museum's Advisory Council. For examples of the Museum's historically oriented catalogues, see A. Barclay, Handbook of the Collections Illustrating Industrial Chemistry, London, 1929; or H. Shaw, with the assistance of J. McG. Bruckshaw and S. T. Newing, Applied Geophysics: A Brief Survey of the Development of Apparatus and Methods Employed in the Investigation of Subterranean Structural Conditions and the location of Mineral Deposits [with a catalogue of exhibits], London, 1931.
10. See Great Britain, Civil Service Department, British Library, Cmnd 4572, London, 1971; the explanatory letter held in the Science Museum archives, Documentation Centre, Science Museum, London, from C. C. Leamy to L. R. Day, 18 March 1983; and Lance Day, 'The Science Museum library' (photoreproduced leaflet), London, 1985.
11. Ghislaine M. Skinner, 'Sir Henry Wellcome's museum for the science of history', Medical History (1986), 30, 383-418. The acquisition of the Wellcome collections has made the Museum a major resource in the history of medicine.
12. David Follett, The Rise of the Science Museum under Henry Lyons, London, 1978. The foundation of the Children's Gallery was a major step in the worldwide evolution of the science-centre movement.
13. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
14. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
15. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
16. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
17. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
18. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
19. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
20. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
21. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
22. See for example G. Lawrence (ed.), Technologies of Modern Medicine, Proceedings of a Science Museum Symposium, March 1993, London, 1994; Susan Mossman (ed.), Early Plastics: Perspectives 1850-1950, Leicester, 1997; Theodor Benfey and Peter Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules, Washington, DC, forthcoming; Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology, Cambridge, 1993; Brian Bowers, Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting, Oxford, forthcoming; Andrew Nahum, 'Two-stroke or turbine? The Aeronautical Research Committee and British aero engine development in World War II', Technology and Culture, in press; and Doron Swade and John Palfreman, The Dream Machine: The Coming of the Computer Age, London, 1991. On scientific instruments see Alan Morton and Jane Wess, Public and Private Science: The King George III Collection, Oxford, 1993; Peter Morris and A. S. Travis, 'The role of physical instrumentation in the elucidation of the structures of organic compounds', in Science in the Twentieth Century (ed. John Krige and Dominique Pestre), Chur, Switzerland, in press; and Robert Bud and Deborah Warner (eds.), Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia, New York, in press.
23. Jerry Ravetz, 'The Development of the History of Science in Post-War Britain', Triangle Lecture, Science Museum, London, 15 November 1995.
24. A workshop intended to be the first of a series was held at the Museum at the end of July 1996, under the joint sponsorship of the three museums. It is intended that key papers from that event will be published.