Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T06:20:51.880Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Museums and the establishment of the history of science at Oxford and Cambridge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1997

J. A. BENNETT
Affiliation:
Museum of the History of Science, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3AZ

Abstract

In the Spring of 1944, an informal discussion took place in Cambridge between Mr. R. S. Whipple, Professor Allan Ferguson and Mr. F. H. C. Butler, concerning the formation of a national Society for the History of Science.

This is the opening sentence of the inaugural issue of the Bulletin of the British Society for the History of Science, the Society's first official publication. Butler himself was the author of this outline account of the subsequent approach to the Royal Society, the parallel moves to establish a National Committee of the International Academy of the History of Science, the formation of a provisional committee to prepare a draft constitution for a national society, and the proceedings of the first Annual General Meeting in May 1947. Whipple had been in Cambridge to discuss his offer to present his collection of old scientific instruments to the University and the possible foundation of a new museum, and Butler, as Secretary of the History of Science Committee in Cambridge, was the chief mover in both this development and an initiative coupled with it to establish a department of the history of science.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1997 British Society for the History of Science

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)