Highly regarded for being the UK's first collecting institution to focus on records of scientific discovery and progress, Oxford's History of Science Museum recently turned 100 and celebrated its centennial anniversary last weekend March 2 and 3.
Marking the momentous occasion, the museum unveiled a new exhibition last Saturday, March 2, dubbed "About Time," curated by John Fell Research Fellow Dr. Sumner Braund.
According to a public release by the University of Oxford, the show is a retrospective of how museum founder Lewis Evans eventually established the institution as it is known today through the donation of his own international scientific instrument collection.
History of Science Museum's 'About Time' Centenary Exhibition
As per the University, Evans was aged 17 when he was given his first scientific paraphernalia in 1870: a sundial. Thereafter, his fascination with timekeeping launched and he spent the rest of his waking hours collecting a variety of scientific paraphernalia across Europe and beyond.
Moved by Evans' passion and growing assemblage, his close friend Robert Gunther endeavored to find a permanent place for Evans' fascinating artifacts and "preached" about how important it is to share the history of science and its various instruments.
Eventually, Evans himself would be convinced to support Gunther's mission, prompting him to gift the entirety of his collection to the University of Oxford, and in turn, Gunther became the inaugural director of the History of Science Museum.
Located on Broad Street, even the institution's address is rooted in deep history as it is the same place where the Ashmolean Museum first stood, also known as the world's first discipline-specific museum built in 1683.
Last weekend, the Oxford collecting institution presented some of the exhibition's headlining pieces, which include a 17th-century marble copy of Elizabeth I advisor John Dee's Holy Table and John Russel's gigantic pastel painting of the moon, which he made across three decades and finished in 1795.
In addition, the show also includes Howard Florey's original penicillin culture from 1941, which is regarded as a fundamental innovation that acted as a basis for Alexander Fleming's discovery of antibiotic production.
Also being displayed are the timekeeping and travel instruments that informed "His Dark Materials" author Philip Pullman's eventual invention of the Lyra's alethiometer, which is also featured in the novels.
However, perhaps the most "acclaimed" object in the show is Einstein's Blackboard, which was retained directly after the famed 1931 lecture that explained the universe's age, density, and size.
"I hope this exciting new physical and digital display will enable visitors to see through his eyes," says Braund of the show, "from that first spark of interest in a sundial to a life-long commitment to compiling the collection that created this unique museum."
