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2020
Journal article
Review of: Trevor Royle, Facing the Bear: Scotland and the Cold War
In 1964 Alexander MacIntyre of Strone designed a tartan for the personnel of the American Submarine base at the Holy Loch. The tartan is registered as ‘Polaris Military’ after the infamous nuclear missile carried by the US Navy's ballistic missile submarines, and includes navy blue to represent the naval uniform,...Alberti, S J M M
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2020
Journal article
Norman Dott (1897–1973) and medical illustration: the importance of art to neurosurgery
Anatomical information and pathologies have been conveyed through the medium of medical illustrations for centuries. In the formative years of British neurosurgery, Professor Norman Dott (1897–1973) utilised medical illustrations as a means of documenting neurosurgical advances and conveying pathological-anatomical correlation. He commissioned a vast number of medical illustrations over the... -
Journal article
Special issue: Shaping Scientific Instrument Collections
There is an extensive literature on the history of what we now term scientific instruments. As a result, we know a great deal about how devices such as telescopes, clocks and astrolabes were made and used, especially those dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Many of these artefacts...Alberti, S J M M
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Journal article
A laboratory for multi-century science
Charles Cockell and colleagues consider what it takes to establish and maintain an experiment that lasts for decades – or even for centuries.Cockell, Charles S ; Santomartino, Rosa ; McMahon, Sean ; Reekie, Philippe ; Alberti, S J M M …
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2018
Journal article
Shaping scientific instrument collections: A historiography
There is an extensive literature on the history of what we now term scientific instruments. As a result, we know a great deal about how devices such as telescopes, clocks and astrolabes were made and used, especially those dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Many of these artefacts...Alberti, S J M M
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2018
Journal article
Maude Abbott and the origin and mysterious disappearance of the Canadian Medical War Museum
From the mid-1960s a new breed of scientific instrument curators emerged in the United Kingdom. This small community of practice developed in parallel to but Context.—In the early 1900s, it was common practice to retain, prepare, and display instructive pathologic specimens to teach pathology to medical trainees and practitioners; these...Wright Jr, James R ; Alberti, S J M M ; Lyons, Christopher ; Fraser, Richard S
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2018
Journal article
Scientific instrument curators in Britain: building a discipline with material culture
From the mid-1960s a new breed of scientific instrument curators emerged in the United Kingdom. This small community of practice developed in parallel to but distinctly from the expanding generation of university historians of science and other cognate museum sub-professions. Presenting the trajectories, experiences and practices of personnel in British...Alberti, S J M M
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Journal article
Collecting 21st-century science, technology and medicine
Museums are often associated exclusively with bygones. This can be problematic, especially for those who manage science, technology and medicine (STM) collections. In seeking to correct this misconception with contemporary collecting, they also face other problems, especially in scale and complexity. While acknowledging such challenges, this opinion piece proposes opportunities...Alberti, S J M M ; Cox, Elsa ; Phillipson, Tacye ; Taubman, Alison
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2018
Journal article
Drawing damaged bodies: British Medical Art in the Early Twentieth century
Historians are acutely aware of the role of art in medicine. Elaborate early modern works catch our eye; technical innovations attract analysis. This paper beats a different path by examining three little-known artists in early twentieth-century Britain who deployed what may seem like an outdated method: drawing. Locating the function...Alberti, S J M M
First World War, surgery, medical illustration, wounds, and pathology
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2017
Journal article
Reflecting the Now: project management and contemporary collecting in a multi-disciplinary Museum
Nearly two million visitors a year will pass through the new permanent galleries of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. This article reflects on the planning and collecting that presaged their redevelopment in the context of twenty-first century museum practice in the UK. We focus in particular on two...Alberti, S J M M ; Allen, Stephen ; Dectot, Xavier ; Gill, Ruth
reflective practice, contemporary collecting, project management, and National Museum of Scotland
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2017
Journal article
Why collect Science?
In this critical assessment of the ‘museology of science’ I cherry-pick recent scholarship and practice to unpack the functions of science collections. Some practices (exhibition, engagement, study) have already attracted considerable attention, others not yet (storage); but all tend to be considered separately as case studies from particular institutions and...Alberti, S J M M
research, science engagement, exhibitions, science and technology museums, storage, and materiality
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2017
Journal article
Prosthetic limbs on display: from maker to user
Prosthetic devices have been used in museums to tell clinical, technical and personal stories. Here we reflect on the ways artificial limbs and their users were represented in recent museum projects at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and at National Museums Scotland. We consider how these meaningful artefacts...Goggins, Sophie ; Phillipson, Tacye ; Alberti, S J M M
war, prosthetics, users, and disability
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2016
Journal article
Finding patients in the Medical Museum
Alberti, S J M M
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2017
Journal article
Review of Anatomy Museum: death and the body displayed by Elizabeth Hallam
Sam Alberti dissects an accessible book on the ins and outs of displaying human remainsAlberti, S J M M
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2016
Journal article
The history of Medical Museums in Edinburgh
Edinburgh has a wealth of medical collections, thanks not only to its role in the Enlightenment and the diaspora of graduates from the large medical school, but also to recent developments in medical heritage. Concentrating on the collections of the University of Edinburgh’s Anatomy Department and Surgeons’ Hall Museums at...Alberti, S J M M