Past Events

Past Events

22 November 2015
Following in Harry’s Footsteps
Walking Tour
Join Dear Harry curators for an inspiring free walking tour of Oxford exploring places connected with Henry ‘Harry’ Moseley, including the Moseley family home on Banbury Road, St Giles’ Church, Trinity College, and the Department of Physics. Tour will start from the Museum and will last 90 minutes.

Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November, 12:00 – 16:00
Shining a Light on World War One
Family-Friendly Drop In
One arts and crafts activities, hands-on activities related to battlefield communications in WW1 including telegraphy, radio communication, signals and semaphores from the Royal Signals Museum, and replica World War One uniforms and equipment. Suitable for ages 6+

Saturday 14 November, 12:00-17:00
Periodic Table of Elements Day
Family-Friendly Drop In
The periodic table brings order to information about the chemical elements and helps scientists understand the world around us. At this free event find out more about the periodic table, see hands-on exciting demonstrations of elemental science, and print your periodic element to make up a truly unique periodic table of elements!

Tuesday, October 13, 2015 from 19:00 to 21:00
Too Valuable to Die?
Evening Debate
Silke Ackermann (Director, Museum of the History of Science), Liz Bruton (Co-curator, “Dear Harry”… Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War), and Nigel Biggar (Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, University of Oxford) will discuss the ethics of scientists going to war in response to the current Museum of the History of Science exhibition exploring the life and legacy of talented English physicist Henry Moseley. Taking place at the Museum, this event is co-organised with TORCH.
When Moseley was killed on the battlefield at Gallipoli in August 1915, newspapers on all sides of the conflict denounced his tragic death with one English newspaper headline proclaiming that Moseley was “too valuable to die”. Moseley’s death contributed to a changing attitude to scientists and science going to war with scientists and engineers being kept away from the frontline. Instead the work of scientists and engineers – research and expertise – is used to meet military goals with scientific research increasingly relying on military funding. In this debate, we will discuss the ethics of scientific research being used for military ends as well as whether scientists being held back from frontline service means others serve and die in their place.
Poster

Saturday 10 October 2015, 10:00 to 16:00 CANCELLED
World War One: Local Connections, Global Conflict
Adult Workshop
Adult Study Day. Sadly this event was cancelled.  We may run it later this year or early in 2016, please check the MHS website for details.

Tuesday, 6 October 2015 from 19:00 to 20:30
‘Sacrifice of a Genius’: Henry Moseley, scientist and soldier
Evening Lecture
Featuring Emeritus Professor Derek Stacey, Department of Physics and Dr. Elizabeth Bruton, Museum of the History of Science.
The lecture will be opened by Derek Stacey, who will start with a description of Henry Moseley’s scientific discoveries, and the remarkable way in which they came about. This will include Mosley’s work with Ernest Rutherford in Manchester, and his later return to Oxford in 1913. It was here where he carried out, single-handedly over a period of a few months, the bulk of his seminal work. Elizabeth Bruton will then explore Moseley’s life as a soldier, beginning with his enlistment in the Royal Engineers in October 1914, and military and signals training in Britain, before his service as a Signals Officer and tragic death in action. The evening will conclude by discussing Moseley’s personal and scientific legacies, the impact of his death upon his family, and the impact felt by the wider international scientific community, as well as the influence of his work upon future scientific research.
Poster

Thursday, 8 October 2015 from 19:00 to 20:30
Harry Moseley: “…meteor of a summer night…”
Evening Lecture
Scientists and their work have long inspired writers too, so we were pleased to bring together our current exhibition on Henry Moseley with members of poetry group Oxford Stanza Two. These poets have been working with us to produce original new work, as well as running workshops in the Museum for local sixth form students, helping the students to explore and create their own poetry.
Join Oxford Stanza Two and students from the workshop as they present their poems inspired by the ‘Dear Harry…’ exhibition about the physicist Henry Moseley at the Museum of the History of Science. Learn more about the event here. Read the poetry from this event here.
Poster

Saturday 26 September, 1-4pm
Remembering the Great War
Special Event
A reminiscence day inviting the public to share family memories, papers and objects from World War One.
Poster

Saturday 19 September, 12-4pm
Big Draw: X-ray Line
Day Event
Join a range of artists, including some from Oxford Brookes University, to experiment with 3-D drawing inspired by Harry Moseley’s world of X-rays and atomic structure. Part of the national launch event for the 2015 Big Draw festival of drawing. Open to all.
Poster

Saturday 12 September, 2-4pm
Beam Me Up Harry!
Family Friendly Event
Discovery the story of Harry’s life and make a simple spectroscope to detect an element from a beam of light.
Suitable for ages 9+. Materials charge of £2.

Tuesday 25 August, 7pm
Harry’s Nobel Prize
Public Lecture
Doors will now open at 6.15pm so you can visit the exhibition whilst co-curator Elizabeth Bruton is on-hand to chat and answer questions.
Distinguished historian of science Professor John Heilbron published the definitive “life and letters” biography of Henry Moseley in 1974. Forty years on he returns to Harry to consider whether World War One robbed him of a Nobel Prize.
Poster

Saturday 15 August, 1-4pm
Send a Message SOS
Family Friendly Event
Experiment with Morse code and use the Museum’s telegraphic apparatus to unravel the mystery message.
Suitable for ages 7+.

Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 August, 12-4pm
Signals and Semaphores 
Family Friendly Event
Join staff from the Royal Signals Museum for an afternoon of outdoor and indoor activities! Try your hand at World War One battlefield communications including telegraphy, radio communication, signals and semaphore flags.
Suitable for ages 6+.
Poster

Tuesday 4 August, 7pm
Revisiting Gallipoli 
Talk and Film Screening
The Museum Director, Dr Silke Ackermann, will be sharing personal impressions from her resent pilgrimage to Gallipoli, ahead of a screening of Gelibolu, the 2005 documentary by Turkish filmmaker Tolga Örnek. Presenting viewpoints from both sides of the conflict, the film is narrated by Jeremy Irons and Sam Neill.
Poster

Saturday 1 August, 2.30pm
From Semaphore Flags to Telephones
Table talk
Dr Elizabeth Bruton discusses communication systems and the vital nature of signalling at Gallipoli during World War One.

Tuesday 28 July, 7pm
Picturing the Enemy
Public Lecture
Art historian Gizem Tongo (Oxford) explores how the Gallipoli campaign was pictured by artists of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic that followed, and aims to understand the representation of the “other side” in the Ottoman and Turkish painters’ palette of imagery.

Tuesday 21 July, 7pm
Oxfordshire on the Home Front, 1914-18
Public Lecture
Dr Stephen Barker, an independent Heritage Advisor currently working with Oxfordshire Museum Services, richly illustrates the impact of the war in Oxfordshire’s towns and countryside: fundraising and charitable events, munitions production, recruitment, the effects on women and children, the fear of invasion, the influx of Belgian refugees and many other themes.
Poster

Thursday 16 July, 7pm
Gloves for Gallipoli
Public Lecture
During World War One, children and women at home were encouraged to help the war effort by sewing and knitting socks, scarves, and gloves to keep soldiers warm. Heidi Kurtz uncovers this remarkable story and shows how, over the cold winter of 1915, soldiers at Gallipoli were reminded that people back home were thinking of them.
Poster

Sunday 12 July, 2.30pm
Amabel’s Diaries
Table Talk
The pocket diaries of Amabel, Henry Moseley’s mother, provide revealing glimpses of a family in peace and war. Presented by Dr Stephen Johnston.

Saturday 20 June, 2-4pm
Beam me up Harry!
Family Friendly Event
Discover the story of Harry Moseley and make a simple spectroscope to detect an element from a beam of light.
Suitable for ages 9+. Materials charge of £2.

Thursday 18 June, 7pm
All the King’s Men (1999)
Film Screening (PG15)
Our season of Gallipoli films begins with All the King’s Men (1999), a feature-length BBC television drama starring David Jason about the mystery of Sandringham Company of the Norfolk Regiment, which disappeared in action at Gallipoli in 1915.
Poster

Wednesday 17 June, 6pm
Oxford in the Great War
Bike Ride
Embark on a twelve-mile bicycle ride, led by Dear Harry co-curator Dr Elizabeth Bruton, and hear about the history of Oxford in World War One, from explosive research to dashing pilots as well as the Oxford connections of Henry Moseley and more! There will be some off-road sections and regular stops.  Part of Oxford Bike Week.
Poster

Sunday 7 June, 2.30pm
From Crystals to Atoms
Table Talk
How did Henry Moseley investigate atoms using x-rays and crystals. Dr Stephen Johnston attempts to reveal the secret.

Tuesday 2 June, 7pm
Moseley and Manchester Science
Evening Lecture
Henry Moseley moved from Oxford to Manchester in 1910, leaving behind a small scientific community tied to the traditions of college life. He joined the dynamic research team around Ernest Rutherford and quickly reached the forefront of contemporary physics. Dr Neil Todd (University of Manchester) illuminates Moseley’s life and work in Manchester, and his rapid transformation from student to leading researcher.

Saturday 30 May, 2.30pm
From Semaphore Flags to Telephones

Table Talk
Dr Elizabeth Bruton discusses communication systems and the vital nature of signalling at Gallipoli during World War One.

Thursday 28 – Friday 29 May, 1-4pm
Send a Message SOS
Family Friendly Event
Experiment with Morse code and use the Museum’s telegraphic apparatus to unravel the mystery message.
Suitable for ages 7+.

See our upcoming events here.

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