News

This February half term join us for an after-hours museum adventure. Grab your torch and explore our collections after dark with our space-themed family trail.Space ExplorersWednesday 19 Feb, 5-7pm.Free, drop-in. Ever since prehistoric painters used constellations to decorate rocks, people have always been interested in the moon, stars and planets.…

Last December, the Whipple Museum was delighted to host Dr Artemis Yagou of the Deutsches Museum, Berlin, for a one month research fellowship. Artemis is studying the circulation of scientific instruments used around the turn of the nineteenth century in Greece, then a province of the Ottoman Empire – the period before the Greek War of Independence…

The Whipple Museum of the History of Science is reimagining our Learning Gallery!We seek a creative practitioner with experience in community-focused installations to bring the “wow” factor to the Gallery, with an exciting and eye- catching new artwork to hang in the ceiling.We’ve been consulting our young audiences about what they’d like to see in…

The following Saturday openings have been announced for 2025.We will be open on:15th NovemberOpening hours, 10am - 4pm. We hope to see you soon!

2024 marks 150 years since the founding of the Cavendish Laboratory of Experimental Physics. No one could have predicted in 1874 that Cambridge physics would give birth to the atomic age: that the electron and neutron would be discovered, and the atom itself split, on Free School Lane.From delicate glass vessels and workbench instruments to one of …

Finally, the Whipple Museum will regularly be open on Saturdays!Starting on the 15th June, we will be open on the third Saturday of every month.Opening hours willl be 10:00 to 16:00.We will be open on:19 October16 November

Jim Bennett, pre-eminent historian of scientific instruments, former Curator of the Whipple Museum, former Fellow and Senior Tutor of Churchill College, internationally celebrated curator and museum director, has died in Oxford at the age of 76.James Arthur Bennett—always Jim to his friends—was born on 2 April 1947. After an early education at Gros…

We are delighted to announce that Craftswomen, our latest exhibition, has won the British Society for the History of Science Exhibiting Excellence Prize 2023!The judges were particularly impressed bythe way the exhibition knitted HSTM scholarship into the content of the exhibition; foregrounding the stories of women instrument makers through object…

Craftswomen is a new exhibition at the Whipple Museum exploring the work of women in the British instrument trade between the 17th and 19th centuries. It exposes the often unseen work of the ‘craftswomen’ who made instruments for measuring, modelling and investigating the world.There are many famous women in the history of science: Rosalind Frankli…

Please check out Xinyi Wen's online Doctrine of Signatures Exhibition, which was hosted by the Whipple Museum earlier this year.A walnut looks like a brain, and therefore could perhaps cure brain diseases — today, a traditional medicinal idea called ‘the doctrine of signatures’ is widely cited in contemporary pharmacy and herbalism. It holds that m…

Featuring industrial tools and a creature called a ‘Dragoyle’, our new display on Measuring Air Before Covid showcases scientific instruments used to test ventilation.During the Covid-19 pandemic, increasing ventilation has been important in reducing transmission. Measuring instruments previously used in mines and factories have found new uses in s…

Although we are currently closed to visitors, you can still enjoy the Whipple Museum from home in the following ways:Search and browse through records and images of close to 7,000 objects, as well as records of our Trade Literature.Access our collections portal here.Enjoy a virtual tour of the Museum's 75th anniversary exhibition with the Curator o…

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 instrume…

A new range of Henslow-themed products has been launched at the University's 'Curating Cambridge' online shop.Combining science and art, items from this new Henslow range make the perfect gift for those with an eye for the unusual.During his tenure as Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge, Henslow (1796 - 1861) revitalised the subject …

The Whipple Museum collections are now fully online!Like other museums, only a small proportion of our collection is on display at any one time and, in the current public health situation, physical access to museums has become very challenging. But now you can search and browse through records and images of close to 7,000 objects, as well as record…