Archivist Jan Shearsmith takes us on another sneak peak into the Science and Industry Museum archives. Here, he discusses how cataloguing descriptions can never quite live up to the experience of finding an unexpected and mysterious collections gem.
How do you transform history into music? How about engineering into notes or a train whistle into quavers and chords? A creative PhD project in collaboration with the museum is taking a look at how the story of our historic railway can be transformed into rhythm, melody and sound.
To celebrate the United Nation’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, aspiring scientist and Marketing Manager Nancy Hopkins picks her top three women of science with a Manchester connection.
How the magnificent John Rylands Library got its electricity is a fascinating look at the growth of 19th century Manchester, early electricity developments, and may even hold lessons for more sustainable power in our future.
In the second part of our blog post about George and Robert Stephenson, we turn our attention towards the younger’s achievements and the elder’s last years.
What do Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Jonathan Creek and the Associate Curator at the Science and Industry Museum have in common? We all love solving a mystery.
Zap away the post Christmas blues and power up your 2019 with our Top 10 electricity-themed songs, inspired by our Electricity: The spark of life exhibition.
We’ve been thinking about Rocket a lot recently. Not just its engineering excellence that sets it apart from its rivals, but the stories of the people surrounding the iconic locomotive as well.
If you’ve read any of our Rocket blogs, you’ll already know that Rocket was designed by Robert Stephenson, son of engineer George Stephenson. But who exactly were they? What made them tick, and how did they rise to the heights that they did?
To get you into the festive mood, here’s a trip into the Science Museum Group collections to find a very random but very *us* 12 Days of Christmas…
Former archivist Jan Shearsmith takes us through a collection he found in 2018 documenting the training exploits of a pilot in the early days of the RAF.
Here’s a question you probably haven’t been asked: in a game of museum object charades, how would you act out an ornate 19th century glass lamp shade?