From January, the AHRC is funding the project 'Tools of Knowledge: Modelling the Creative Communities of the Scientific Instrument Trade, 1550-1914', based in the Whipple Museum.
Working with an interdisciplinary team, 'Tools of Knowledge' will apply cutting-edge methods of digital analysis to data on almost four centuries of the scientific instrument trade in Britain. The project will provide highly accessible information on the history of science, specifically as it relates to commerce, industry, teaching, and questions of local, national and international geography.
It will be grounded in the existing Scientific Instrument Makers, Observations and Notes (SIMON) dataset due to Dr Gloria Clifton and held by the National Maritime Museum, comprising more than 10,000 records on individual instrument makers and firms from Great Britain and Ireland.
The project is in partnership with Royal Museums Greenwich and the Science Museum, London.
In this time when so many people everywhere are working digitally, Tools of Knowledge will provide quick information in addition to deep context on thousands of objects in museum collections all around the world.
Please visit the Tools of Knowledge website for more information.
Profesor Liba Taub (Director and Curator, Whipple Museum), is the Principal Investigator; Dr Alexander Butterworth (University of Sussex), Dr Rebekah Higgitt (National Museums Scotland), Dr Boris Jardine (University of Cambridge) and Dr Joshua Nall (Curator of Modern Sciences, Whipple Museum), are Co-Investigators.