MHS News – Inside HSM Oxford

My fortnight at the Museum by Kelly Lau

Robyn Haggard — Fri, 17 May 2019 14:30:39 +0000

In April we welcomed Kelly Lau, a second year student from the University of Reading, to the Museum for a two week placement. In this guest blog post Kelly talks about her experience at the Museum. I feel very lucky to have been part of the Public Engagement team for two weeks, helping them research ... [Read more...]

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Ephemera For Ever!

Robyn Haggard — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 16:52:07 +0000

We were recently asked by the University’s Development Office for an example of a donation with a striking story. What could be nicer than drawing out the extraordinarily detailed implications of a single piece of throwaway paper from the 18th century, and celebrating the generosity of a remarkable but modest benefactor? ** John R. Millburn ... [Read more...]

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Demonstrating history: an undergraduate class visit to MHS

Robyn Haggard — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 14:16:29 +0000

Guest post by Dr Michael Bycroft, whose University of Warwick undergraduate history class visited the Museum for an afternoon of talks and hands-on experience with instruments of the 17th and 18th centuries. ** As every historian of 18th-century experimental philosophy knows, lectures and instruments are an excellent couple. It’s all very well to hold forth ... [Read more...]

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An Orrery for an Arts Award

Robyn Haggard — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 10:18:05 +0000

Silver Arts Award at the Museum of the History of Science In this guest post Miranda Millward, Oxford University Museums Arts Coordinator, talks about a recent Silver Arts Award. ** In 2014 Hovnan Eayrs approached the Museum of the History of Science to ask if he could work towards his Silver Arts Award. Hovnan planned ... [Read more...]

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What happens to loan objects?

Robyn Haggard — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 11:05:25 +0000

Earlier in 2015 the National Library of Wales took on two loan objects from MHS, which feature in their exhibition ‘The Secret Workings of Nature’: Robert Hooke and Early Science. In this guest post Dr Geraint Phillips, the Exhibition Curator, tells us a little about the exhibition and the combination of artifacts, images and ideas within ... [Read more...]

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Christmas has come early for MHS!

Scott Billings — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 10:24:31 +0000

We have written before about the different ways that new items come into the Museum’s permanent collection – through auctions, donations and other routes. An important source of new material is that given by private donors, and the Museum has been fortunate to receive two recent donations in this way. A medieval European astrolabe, pictured above and to ... [Read more...]

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A day in the life…

Scott Billings — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 09:42:07 +0000

We may be a small museum, but we get up to lots of different things… If you’ve ever wondered what happens here in a typical day, then take a look at this short film. Thanks to Tom Wilkinson and Tom Fuller in the University of Oxford Public Affairs Directorate for putting this together.

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Too valuable to die?

Scott Billings — Tue, 26 May 2015 11:51:53 +0000

Our latest special exhibition, ‘Dear Harry…’ – Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War, is now open and we are pleased to say that people are taking an enthusiastic interest in Moseley’s important story. The exhibition is part biography, part World War I centenary, and part history of science. It presents Harry Moseley intimately as ... [Read more...]

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Eclipseometers are go

Scott Billings — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 14:49:01 +0000

By Scott Billings The Moon came, the Moon went, and for a brief moment we were reminded that we inhabit a lump of rock floating in the middle of space. The word ‘eclipse’ derives from the Greek ekleipsis, which means an abandonment, or forsaking. When the Sun is obscured from view in the middle of the day, ... [Read more...]

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Tony’s 400th birthday (b)log

Scott Billings — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 10:02:29 +0000

Where our archivist Tony Simcock reminisces on the anniversary of his surprise appointment to the Museum, and celebrates the birth of logarithms along the way (its belated appearance here must be down to one of those annoying clerical errors…) ** I have to declare a lack-of-interest – I failed my maths O level … I’d found ... [Read more...]

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