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Conference paper (published)
One model for the care of corporate heritage: The BT Connected Earth partnership in practice since 2002
Connected Earth is a web based museum of the history of communication,underpinned by a series of major physical collections, distributed among a network of museums around the UK. It represents a £6 million investment by BT (British Telecommunications plc), to promote the widest possible access to its collections of historical...Taubman, Alison
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Book
Making scientific instruments in the industrial revolution
This book looks at the four main, and two lesser, English centres known for instrument production outside the capital: Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield, along with the older population centres in Bristol and York. Making wide use of new sources, Dr Morrison-Low, curator of history of science at the National...Morrison-Low, A D
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Journal article
National treasure looks to future to preserve the past
Landmark museum building goes from strength to strength, with a £14m third phase of restoration to be opened in 2016, says Gordon RintoulRintoul, Gordon
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Book
Francis Watkins and the Dollond telescope patent controversy
Francis Watkins was an eminent figure in his field of mathematical and optical instrument making in mid-eighteenth century London. Working from original documents, Brian Gee has uncovered the life and times of an optical instrument maker, who - at first glance - was not among the most prominent in his...Gee, Brian
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Journal article
Making a play for the gamer generation
Exhibitions charting the rise and development of video games are not strictly for the kids, writes Sarah Rothwell.Rothwell, Sarah
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Journal article
A new centre will celebrate our scientific heritage
Finding the right formula to bring the wonderful world of science to a wider audience, says Ali FloydFloyd, Ali
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Book
Illuminating instruments
This 7th volume in the Artefacts series looks at a number of significant instruments that were created to serve various scientific purposes. The contributors examine the roles these instruments played both as scientific devices developed to advance our knowledge of the world and as cultural artifacts manufactured and used in... -
Book chapter
Instruments of exploration in National Museums Scotland
Focusing on aspects of the functioning of technology, and by looking at instruments and at instrumental performance, this book addresses the epistemological questions arising from examining the technological bases to geographical exploration and knowledge claims. Questions of geography and exploration and technology are addressed in historical and in contemporary context...Morrison-Low, A D
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Journal article
Making space for models: (re)representing engineering in Scotland’s national museum, 1854–present
The model-making practices and the role of engineering models on display within a British (and since 1999 Scottish) Government-funded, ‘national’, museum are examined. The changing curatorial perceptions of models and their role over the 160-year history of the Museum are analysed, as are the spaces in which, and the processes...Staubermann, Klaus ; Swinney, Geoffrey N
workshop practice, exhibition, curation, translation of scale, public engagement, and model-making
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Book chapter
Energy well spent: practical approaches to contemporary collecting at the National Museum of Scotland
Cet ouvrage réunit les interventions du séminaire "Patrimoine contemporain : Science, technique, culture et société" qui s'est tenu au musée des Arts et Métiers de 2012 à 2015. Les membres de ce séminaire ont mené de multiples réflexions sur les questions - à la fois théoriques et pratiques - soulevées...Cox, Elsa
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Journal article
What machine tools can tell us about historic skills and knowledge.
This article aims to promote the study of skills and practices through the examination of historic machine tools. Machine tools in museum collections offer an ideal resource for the investigation of historic practices and their material cultures. National Museums Scotland holds a unique collection of historic machine tools and examples...Staubermann, Klaus
Lathes, Collections, Training, Practices, Museums, Machine tools , and Skills
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Journal article
George Wilson's Map of Technology: giving shape to the ‘industrial arts’ in mid-nineteenth-century Edinburgh
An intriguing symbol adorns the grave, in Edinburgh's Old Calton Burial Ground, of George Wilson (1818–1859), Britain's first Professor of Technology. Wilson himself had devised the symbol as an emblem for the Industrial Museum of Scotland of which he was Director. In his professorial role he defined and delineated the...Swinney, Geoffrey N
technological education, Industrial Museum of Scotland, National Museums Scotland, geographies of science, collections, and teaching
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Journal article
Focus on: biomedical interactives
Phillipson, Tacye
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Journal article
Technology and skill: dividing engines in the Nineteenth Century
Recent studies in the making of scientific knowledge have demonstrated that science and technology are mutually dependant on each other. One example here is the manufacture of scientific instruments. Both instrument makers’ tools and practices are essential for shaping the functioning of an instrument and thereby shaping later instrument users’...Staubermann, Klaus
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Journal article
Geschichte erleben
Historic reconstructions have become a decisive tool in many areas of science and technology studies over the past few decades. In this article I present some highly significant scientific apparatus designed during the 19th century. I show how, by rebuilding these artefacts and practising with them, significant historical insights can...Staubermann, Klaus
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Journal article
Material characterization and preservation guidance for a collection of prosthetic limbs developed since 1960
National Museums Scotland has collections relating to many areas of science and technology, including medical science. This paper considers technical and conservation issues of an important collection of more than 150 prosthetic limbs. Much of the collection is of prosthetics developed for children born lacking or with malformed upper limbs...Smith, Margaret J ; Kirk, Susanna ; Tate, Jim ; Cox, Darren
Bioengineering, Museum display and storage, Thalidomide, FTIR, Polymer degradation, XRF, Preservation of mixed materials, and Prosthetics
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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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Journal article
James Ferguson's misidentified coin balance
Phillipson, Tacye
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Journal article
On the NMS Masterplan
Staubermann, Klaus
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Journal article
How can science be better communicated in museums?
Phillipson, Tacye
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Collecting 21st-Century Science, Technology and Medicine in Scotland
On 6 June 2017 a group of museum professionals with shared interests in contemporary collecting science, technology and medicine assembled at the National Museum of Scotland to share best practice and lessons learned in this area. After presentations from some of those involved in Scottish collections, different perspectives were provided...Robertson, Haileigh ; Goggins, Sophie ; Alberti, S J M M
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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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Journal article
A guide to public engagement for entomological collections and natural history museums in the age of social media
Social media has revolutionized the way research and museum collections communicate with the general public by disseminating knowledge and information in real time. Currently there are limited studies examining the use of social media by museums and entomological collections to engage the general public online. Social media has the power...Lessard, B ; Whiffin, A L ; Wild, A L
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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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Journal article
Bringing museums to life with science
Clare Meakin, science engagement manager for National Museums Scotland, on why the organisation is on tour teaching science and technology to pupilsMeakin, Clare
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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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Journal article
Investigating vision - scientific instruments as historiographic tools for the understanding of the development and establishment of colour, perception and performance research at Edinburgh University, 1850–1950
This article draws a historic trajectory for the study of colour perception at Edinburgh University through the examination of three key pieces of scientific apparatus and their uses. It traces the development of colour, perception and skills research at Edinburgh University from the 1850s to 1950s. Starting point of the...Staubermann, Klaus
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Journal article
Collecting the personal: stories of domestic energy and everyday life at the National Museum of Scotland
Energise is one of ten award-winning new galleries at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Aimed at a family audience, it explores the sources, generation, distribution and use of energy and questions how science and technology may transform how we power our lives in the future. This short case-study... -
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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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
Geomagnetic instruments at National Museums Scotland
In 1981, the sole book about historic geomagnetic instruments was by Anita McConnell. Using it as a timeline, the Royal Scottish Museum’s temporary exhibition ‘The Earth is a Magnet’, was put on to co-incide with an international congress held in Edinburgh that year. The experience emphasised curatorial awareness that this...Morrison-Low, A D
Scottish geomagnetic history, curatorial practice, Temporary exhibitions, and Dr Anita McConnell.
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Uses and audiences for the Heritage of Contemporary Science
Report on a workshop of the Universeum Working Group for the Preservation of Recent Heritage of Science in the University, at the University of Glasgow. Universeum’s Working Group for the Preservation of RHS is concerned with the study, conservation and interpretation of the heritage of science, technology and medicine produced...Wittje, Roland ; Alberti, S J M M
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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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Journal article
Arms and the robot: Freddy and his, her, or its toys.
One of a collection of papers presented at Musee des Arts et Metiers in 2006 and 2008.Phillipson, Tacye
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Conference paper (published)
If mobile is the answer, what was the question?
Despite an ever-increasing urgency within institutions to deliver a mobile project, in the experience of National Museums Scotland and National Museum Wales, significant challenges exist in securing cross-departmental teams for these projects, managing internal expectations, and ensuring that the project is aligned with the institution’s core mission. To overcome these...Wallace, Hugh ; Tallon, Loic ; James, Dafydd
organizational systems, mobile, design processes, and digital strategy
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Book chapter
Comments on Seventeenth Century Lenses and Projection.
Various attempts have been made to understand the role of the camera obscura in Renaissance painting. This study tries to understand the actual practice necessary to produce the image. Based on original artifacts as well as reconstructions I will first explore the functioning and making of the device, especially that...Staubermann, Klaus