An Orrery for an Arts Award

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.

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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 to create a short informative film about a museum object which visitors could access during their museum visit by scanning a QR code with their smartphone. This idea was inspired by work experience Hovnan had undertaken at Imperial College as a Learning Technologist working on short films to help students understand scientific information. Hovnan also took inspiration from a visit to the Royal Institution where interpretation films are activated by scanning QR codes. Silver Arts Award requires young people to set themselves an Arts Challenge to develop their artistic and creative skills – Hovnan chose film making as his challenge.

A table orrery held in the Museum surrounded by its component parts.

The table orrery featured in Hovnan’s video with all its attachments (inv. 45104).

Hovnan spent time in the Museum looking at a number of objects and in the end chose to make his film about an orrery on permanent display. An orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system that demonstrates and predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons – orreries were often used in domestic settings as a way to show contemporary science. Hovnan was interested in this object not only because of its history and visual qualities but also because it gave him the chance to film a moving object. Opposite the orrery’s display case is a print of a famous painting by Joseph Wright of Derby showing an orrery in a domestic setting with a family gathered around it. Hovnan wanted to highlight the juxtaposition of artefact and print.

In order to make his film Hovnan spent time planning and creating storyboards. He negotiated with museum staff to establish how and when he could access the object, which could only be handled by trained museum staff. Hovnan used the museum’s photographic studio where he was able to adjust lighting in order to minimise reflections. Hovnan was keen to link the Joseph Wright of Derby painting with a contemporary family looking at the orrery and this section closes the film. In addition, he created a script and recorded Chris Parkin, Education Lead at the Museum, narrating the voice over. The editing was time-consuming but the resulting film received some great feedback:

One of the highlights was to see the orrery in action… this is something that really enhances our understanding of this exhibit.

The film created a good atmosphere with the pace of the shots, the fades of the ‘celestial’ music up and down between the narration, and the combination of video and stills material. The script packs in plenty of information but is easy to follow and links tightly with the imagery.

As part of his Silver Arts Award Hovnan also had to undertake an Arts Leadership challenge. He chose to focus on working with a group of young people teaching them how to create a storyboard and plan their own short film. Hovnan had to plan and deliver this session, collect feedback and also evaluate how the session had gone and how he could have improved it.

By summer 2015 Hovnan’s portfolio was ready for moderation and we were all delighted when he passed and received some lovely feedback from the Arts Award moderator.

Hovan with his Arts Award Certificate

Hovnan with his Arts Award Certificate

‘It was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn and develop new skills from knowledgeable and experienced people and understand the challenges of making a film. I’m proud to have created something that is interesting and informative.’
Hovnan

‘The Arts Award is perfectly suited to support motivated young individuals like Hovnan to develop their arts skills outside formal education. As well as producing an excellent film, Hovnan gained experience of working with members of staff in a busy institution. It was a great pleasure to work with him.’
– Chris Parkin, Education Officer

What happens to loan objects?

A stretch of red wall in the exhibition with a quote on the far left, and then a a number of frames containing exhibition text and images from Hooke's Micrographia.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 ScienceIn 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 the display area.

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Our exhibition, ‘The Secret Workings of Nature’: Robert Hooke and Early Science, at the National Library of Wales, was conceived to mark the 350th anniversary of the publication of Hooke’s Micrographia. It explores the significance of Micrographia within the context of the Scientific Revolution and seeks to show how the rise of modern science was made possible by the invention of the telescope and the microscope. The exhibition features early books and manuscripts from our own collections together with two loan objects from MHS: an English hand held refracting telescope from c. 1680 (inv. 15115) and a John Marshall compound microscope, c. 1700 (inv. 46463).

The exhibition is situated in our rare materials display area and contains four cases, covering astronomy and the telescope, The Royal Society and the Baconian method, the development of mathematics, and the rise of biology.

The telescope sent on loan to the exhibition rests in the centre of the case on a pillow, with a letter displayed to its right.

The hand-held refracting telescope inside the exhibition case.

The earliest item is a copy of the Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde’s The Castle of Knowledge (London, 1556) a treatise on cosmology which includes an early and subtly favourable reference to the Copernican theory of a heliocentric cosmos. We have placed the telescope between Recorde’s book and our copy of Galileo’s Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (Florence, 1632) in order to show how modern science began in 1610, when Galileo pointed a refracting telescope at the heavenly bodies, proving Copernicus right and establishing that Aristotle could be proved wrong.

This display case on astronomy also includes a letter, dated 1782, from the great eighteenth-century botanist, and President of the Royal Society, Joseph Banks, describing William and Caroline Herschel’s construction of a forty foot telescope for the exploration of deep space.

If the invention of the telescope enabled Galileo to prove that the earth moves around the sun, the development of the microscope introduced the challenging idea that there is more to the visual world than the eye can register. The potential of the microscope was brought home to the general reader in 1665, with the publication of Hooke’s Micrographia. Our copy of the book has been opened to show Christopher Wren’s startlingly accurate drawing of a flea, now one of the icons of scientific literature.

A picture of the microscope on loan to the National Library of Wales inside the exhibitions display case, with an image from Hooke's Micrographia to the right.

The John Marshall compound microscope next to the National Library of Wales’ copy of Hooke’s Micrographia

The Marshall microscope, with its accessories, sits alongside Micrographia, in a case which also includes books by Francis Bacon and Robert Boyle. Following the publication of Micrographia, there was a huge demand for compound microscopes among gentleman amateurs, and English instrument makers, such as John Marshall, obliged by copying Hooke’s design.

We believe that the inclusion of these two beautiful loan objects from MHS has greatly enriched our exhibition. And we are very grateful to Lucy Blaxland, Collections Manager at MHS, for bringing them to Aberystwyth and facilitating the loan. On a purely aesthetic level they complement our own books and manuscripts, and give balance to the display. We also hope that they have enhanced our visitors’ understanding of the world of 17th-century science by showing how the ideas expressed in our books and manuscripts have their origins in practical experimentation using physical apparatus. Above all, they underline our exhibition’s fundamental theme: that great advances in science are often brought about by the invention of ways of seeing what had previously been unseen.

 

By Dr Geraint Phillips

Christmas has come early for MHS!

Astrolabe Inv14645

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.

Astrolabe Inv14645

Single Plate Universal Astrolabe, European, 15th Century with Later Additions (inv. 14645)

medieval European astrolabe, pictured above and to the right, was given anonymously and will be added to the existing collection of astrolabes which is already the largest and most important in the world. So why add yet another astrolabe to the collection? Is it just a specialist desire to complete the set?

Astrolabes are fascinating ancient devices which capture the apparent movements of the sun and stars in the sky. They were used in astronomy, time-telling, astrology and religion across cultures, time and places. But the latest arrival is an unusual design which the Museum does not have. It includes a universal plate for use anywhere on Earth, providing important new evidence of the transmission of advanced Islamic innovations to 15th-century Europe.

More than that, this new acquisition is an example of a medieval device that has been adapted and reworked in the 16th century: it tells a story of the Renaissance recycling rather than rejecting the Middle Ages. So yes, there is something of the completing-the-set mentality in our excitement at its arrival.

A second recent donation helps tell the story of the development of Elliott Brothers, an innovative British firm founded in the mid-19th century, and with origins in the late 18th century. The company produced instruments for navigation, surveying, calculating, telegraphy, optics, and mechanical and electrical engineering, for clients including the British Admiralty and War Office and the East India Company.

Material from the early production at Elliott Brothers has been painstakingly assembled over a number of years by Mr Ron Bristow, a retired engineer and manager with the business. Although the Museum already holds material from the company in its Elliott Collection, Ron Bristow’s items complement this by revealing more about the early stages of the business, as he explains:

The Elliott Brothers company collection, now in the Museum, had no items from before about 1850, even though the business began in about 1804. So I wondered what they did and what they made in those years.

Mr Ron Bristow with Museum director Dr Silke Ackermann

Mr Ron Bristow with Museum director Dr Silke Ackermann

Using addresses traced by Dr Gloria Clifton in the Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers, 1550-1851, Ron Bristow began to seek out early Elliott Brothers material, acquiring items from antiques fairs, friendly dealers, and auctions. After collecting objects from most of the early company addresses identified in the Directory, Ron decided that the material should remain together as a collection in its own right:

I always had in mind that the examples I had found should remain as a single collection and I am very pleased that the Museum of the History of Science is able to accept it in a safe and accessible way, where it will complement the company collection of later material.

Although many of the mathematical and drawing instruments in the Bristow Collection are quite standard, they offer examples of instruments made by several generations of a single craft dynasty. This illustrates developments in design and manufacturing style or technique, as well as the transmission of skills, first from craftsman to craftsman, and then to the skilled workforce of the larger company.

Both the astrolabe and the 28 items in the Bristow Collection will be accessioned to the Museum’s permanent collection, which continues to grow year by year. Excitingly, the Museum is also in the process of organising a new exhibition in the entrance gallery opening on 19 January 2016. This will allow for the display of these wonderful new acquisitions, and demonstrate the continued vitality of collecting in the modern museum, and the donations, grants and benefactors that make it possible.

There will also be two evening events in February and March to celebrate these objects. On Tuesday 9 February we will be hosting, Beyond the Archive, a conversation illuminating the back story the Bristow Collection with the donor, Ron Bristow. On Tuesday 8 March Dr Stephen Johnston will present the first research results on the European astrolabe, and its relationship to Renaissance recycling in Recycling the Astrolabe. You can book a free ticket to these events through our Eventbrite page here.