Browse results
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From the White Man’s Grave to the White Man’s Home? Experiencing ‘Tropical Africa’ at the 1924–25 British Empire Exhibition
This article analyses the exhibition and reception of Tropical Africa at the 1924–25 British Empire Exhibition, drawing attention to affect, the senses, and spatiality. It emphasises the need to look beyond curatorial intent and consider the multiplicity of potential experiences within World’s Fairs.
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Functionless
Displays of instruments in science museums are closer to those of decorative arts artefacts than to the presentation of real functional and practical objects. This article offers a critique and suggests a path forward to go beyond functionless objects.
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Getting to grips with energy: fuel, materiality and daily life
Editorial
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Giovanni Canestrini’s models of Leonardo da Vinci’s friction experiments
Among the many mechanical models based on Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings, several purport to illustrate his experiments on friction. This article traces the history of these models and examines them critically in the light of recent research into Leonardo’s studies of friction.
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The provenance and context of the Giustiniani Medicine Chest
In 1946 the Giustiniani Medicine Chest came into the Science Museum Collection having originally been bought in Italy in 1924 by an agent of Sir Henry Wellcome, for his medical collection. This article assesses its provenance and history.
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Wounded: Healing communal wounds: processions and plague in sixteenth-century Mantua
In 1576 a plague epidemic inflicted physical and psychological wounds on the community of Mantua. This article examines the role of processions in healing those wounds and discusses the programme of processions organised by the city’s health office in conjunction with religious groups including Mantua’s confraternities.
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Information age? The challenges of displaying information and communication technologies
This article explores the challenges of displaying the history of information and communications in a museum environment, based on Information Age, the Science Museum’s new permanent gallery.
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James Short and John Harrison: personal genius and public knowledge
This is a study of the positive relationship between James Short and John Harrison, set in two eighteenth-century contexts: the notion of individual aptitude or ‘genius’ unspoilt by education or training; and the problem of how individual ability might be captured and formulated as public knowledge.
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In memoriam: Jeff Hughes, 1965–2018
Obituary
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Light as material/lighting as practice: urban lighting and energy
This article uses case-studies of public realm lighting design to argue that deciphering energy consumption requires equal attention to both the material properties of light and the interlinked practices through which social spaces come to be lit.