Exhibitions and Displays

Current Displays

WOMEN IN SCIENCE: Archive Material, Trails and Talks

Basement Gallery

March – December 2018

100 years ago, the first group of women won the right to vote in the UK. In this centenary year, there is widespread recognition of the political role women have played in society. But what about the vital contributions women have made to science? During 2018 we are celebrating a number of women connected with the University and the Museum’s collections. Check back regularly for updates about our activities.

Is there a scientific woman you think should feature in our year of celebrations? We would love to hear about them. Drop us an email at audience.engagement@mhs.ox.ac.uk.

Now:

Self Portrait Colour Photograph of Sarah Acland with her Portuguese Guitar, Early 20th Century

Basement Display

A small display of rarely seen archive material highlights the work of four women. Anna Atkins was one of the first people to illustrate a book with photography in 1843, and Sarah Angelina Acland was a pioneer of colour photography in the early 1900s. Ada Lovelace has been described as the world’s first computer programmer, and Elizabeth Hippisley was a chemist and geologist in the late 1700s. This display of archive material is joined by a banner display featuring eight women from a number of scientific fields. You can read more about their work in the accompanying leaflet, which is also available to download as a PDF.

Family Trail

Follow our Women and Science trail to discover more links to the collections and find out about Caroline Herschel, an astronomer, and Ada Lovelace, a forerunner

of computer coding.

Drop-in, ages 7+

Shout Out For Women Trail

A trail across the collections of Oxford University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums celebrating some of the women who are represented within our collections

and buildings including artists, scientists and curators.

Pick up a copy from our front desk.

Talks and Tours

Women in Science: Tour

Wednesday 26 September, 12.30 – 1pm

Join us for a staff-led tour of our Women in Science programme and discover how women have been involved in science for hundreds of years as astronomers, mathematicians, instrument makers, and merchants.

Meet in the Basement Gallery.

Ada Lovelace: The Making of a Computer Scientist

Professor Ursula Martin – Thursday 27 September 2018

Ada, Countess of Lovelace, is sometimes called the world’s first computer programmer and has become an icon for women in technology. But how did a young woman in the 19th century, without access to formal school or university education, acquire the knowledge and expertise to become a pioneer of computer science?

Ursula Martin is a professor at the University of Oxford whose research interests span mathematics, computer science and the humanities. She recently wrote Ada Lovelace, the Making of a Computer Scientist with Christopher Hollings and Adrian Rice. It is the first popular account of the scientific and mathematical education of Ada Lovelace.

Booking will open on Monday 27 August. Please book via our Eventbrite Page.

Dr Patricia Fara – Thursday 22 November 2018

The author of A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War joins us at the Museum to talk about her work. We will update our events page with booking details in September.

Online Exhibitions

The Museum has been creating virtual versions of exhibitions since 1995:

Anna Dumitriu: BioArt and Bacteria

Back from the Dead

Dear Harry

Geek is Good

In Print

Natural Histories

Revealing The Brain

Let’s Get Physical

Atmospheres

Fancy Names & Fun Toys

The Renaissance in Astronomy

Traces

Eccentricity

Elliott Brothers

Anvilled Stars

Al-Mizan

Steampunk

Compass and Rule

Telescopes Now

Heaven on Earth

SIS 25

Moonscope

Time & Place

Small Worlds

Science in Islam

Wireless World

The Astrolabe, East and West

Astrolabes of Africa

Bye Bye Blackboard

Titan: a new world explored

Drug Trade

The Transits of Venus

The Most Noble Problem in Nature

Star Holder

Solomon’s House in Oxford

Natural Magic

Cosmographia

Epact

Lines of Faith

Garden, Ark, Tower, Temple

Cameras

George Graham and Bill Gates

Images of Tycho Brahe

The Geometry of War

The Measurers

Early Photographs

Oxford Virtual Science Walk

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