Collection: Science Museum Group

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The origins of the Science Museum Group go back to the 1851 Great Exhibition. Among the 7.3 million items we now care for in the collection there are:

  • 7 million items of photographic, archive and library material.
  • 150,000 medical items, including the long-term loan of the Sir Henry Wellcome’s Museum Collection.
  • 38,000 items relating to railway locomotives, technology and railway life.
  • 26,000 scientific instruments.
  • 17,000 items of photographic, cinematographic and televisual technology.
  • 7,000 artworks.

  The Science Museum Group Collection is legally constituted by the National Heritage Act 1983 as overseen by the Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, with the aim that the board will:

  • care for, preserve and add to the objects in their collections
  • (b) secure that the objects are exhibited to the public.
  • (c) secure that the objects are available to persons seeking to inspect them in connection with study or research.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2021

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Although developed as distinct museum holdings on different sites, the Science Museum Group Collection is now increasingly understood, developed, managed and cared for as a unified whole. Without losing sight of the unique origins and history of the collection, we aim for it to be consistently searchable, accessible and interpretable online and across all our sites. It reflects the development of our holdings across six sites:

  Science Museum

  The origins of the Science Museum collection lie in the Science collections of the South Kensington Museum, founded in 1857, which later developed into the Victoria and Albert and Science Museums, formally separated in 1909. The Patent Office Museum and the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Instruments, both housed on the South Kensington site, were the foundations of the Engineering and Science collections respectively. The Science Museum became a major repository for the history of medicine with the long-term loan of the Sir Henry Wellcome’s Museum Collection in 1976. The collection is now divided by three thematic areas: Science, Technologies and Engineering, and Medicine.

  The Science Museum’s world-class library and archive collection charts the world-wide development and history of science, engineering and medicine from the fifteenth to the twentyfirst century. Original printed works include books, journals, patents, trade literature, directories and maps in English and other European languages. The archives hold original records of some of the most famous and influential individuals and companies in the fields of science, medicine, engineering and industry.

  National Railway Museum

  The NRM’s collection is Britain’s largest single body of historic railway items. It has its origins in the historic objects variously preserved by the Commissioners of Patents and individual railway companies in the mid to late 19th century. Following rail nationalisation in 1948, the British Transport Commission established a preservation policy bringing the collection together under a single owner. Two decades later, the 1968 Transport Act led to the creation of a National Railway Museum, which opened in York in 1975, with a sister museum, Locomotion, opening at Shildon in County Durham in 2004. The collection has subsequently been significantly developed to cover all areas of railway history and is housed and displayed both at NRM and Locomotion.

  Locomotion

  Locomotion is a sister museum of the National Railway Museum opened at Shildon in County Durham in 2004. Shildon is vitally important to the story of Britain’s railways, as the place where the world’s first steam-powered public railway sprang to life creating a thriving railway town. Parts of the NRM collection are housed and displayed at Locomotion.

  National Science and Media Museum

  The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford (previously the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television/National Media Museum) was opened in 1983. The Museum’s collection was established from the Science Museum’s existing photography, film and television collection (such as the W.H.F. Talbot, John Logie Baird and Louis Le Prince collections) and has grown through acquisition of whole archives or bodies of material (such as the Kodak Museum Collection or the Impressions Gallery Archive), as well as by smaller-scale commissioning, purchase and donation. In 2015 the Museum adopted a new definition of its primary areas of interest: the science, technology and culture of images and sound.

  Science and Industry Museum

  The collection was formed from 1965, when the Department of the History of Science and Technology at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) began to acquire material. The museum opened in 1969 and was originally called the North Western Museum of Science and Industry. In 1983, the Museum moved to its current premises at the historic Liverpool Road Station, with Greater Manchester Council as its sole funder. In 1985 it added the collection of the adjacent Air and Space Museum, founded by Manchester City Council. In 2012 it joined the Science Museum Group and, as the Science and Industry Museum, documents 250 years of discoveries and innovations that began in Manchester and went on to influence the world. It tells the story of Manchester as the first industrial city, the ongoing interplay between science, industry and society in the North-West region, and its global networks. The collection is divided into three principal areas: science and technology, engineering, and industrial heritage.

  National Collections Centre

  From 2023 the NCC will be our largest storage facility for the Science Museum Group Collection. This large former airfield at Wroughton, near Swindon, was acquired in 1979 both for storage and to allow the development of collection of larger full-size objects such as aeroplanes and commercial road vehicles. The NCC focuses on efficiency, sustainability and the long-term care of objects, optimising our ability to share their stories across the Science Museum Group and with the next generation. As well as objects, the NCC is the storage facility for the Science Museum Library and Archive holdings. As above, these include rare books, 19/20th century collections and trade literature.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2021

  Licence: CC BY-NC