Science Museum Group Journal
The Science Museum Group Journal presents the global research community with peer-reviewed papers relevant to the wide-ranging work of the Science Museum Group. The Journal freely shares the research of four national UK museums and warmly invites contributions that resonate with their collections and practice.
10 CURRENT ISSUE Autumn 2018 - Issue 10
This year is significant both as the centenary of women’s suffrage and the Year of Engineering. In our final issue of 2018, we celebrate these significant markers by turning the spotlight on women scientists with a mini-collection of special papers. Read about the pioneering work of Hertha Ayrton, the first female member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and Blanche Thornycroft, a true pioneer among female naval architects. Explore the under-acknowledged role of women in the railways in the early twentieth century, find out what photographs can say about attitudes towards women scientists, and discover how well (or not) Wikipedia represents women engineers today. You’ll also find articles on subjects ranging from Victorian technologies of display to the challenges of exhibiting contemporary science, from the changing ‘voices’ of objects over time to an enlightening review of three exhibitions by artist Tacita Dean. We’re sure you’ll agree that Issue 10 of the Science Museum Group Journal has something for everyone.
Featured content
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The life and material culture of Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854–1923): suffragette, physicist, mathematician and inventor
Suffragette, physicist, mathematician, and inventor: in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when few women had access to opportunities in STEM, Englishwoman Hertha Marks Ayrton held all these roles and advocated for social justice, including suffrage for women.
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The history of women in engineering on Wikipedia
This paper analyses how the history of women in engineering appears on the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia. It uses qualitative and quantitative methods to assess what needs to be improved and makes recommendations based on successful initiatives.
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Uncovering the secrets of Canadian Pacific
This article discusses the changing roles of women on the railway from 1850 to the end of the Second World War. It focuses on the Southern Railway and how women’s roles on the railway changed to the extent that many were involved in the construction of Canadian Pacific.
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A statistical campaign: Florence Nightingale and Harriet Martineau’s 'England and her Soldiers'
An essay on the making of England and her Soldiers, a book written by Harriet Martineau and based on the statistical work of Florence Nightingale.
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Flying Scotsman: modernity, nostalgia and Britain’s ‘cult of the past’
This article explores the rescue and restoration of the world famous steam locomotive Flying Scotsman in 1963 and explores wider questions about what it means to preserve cultural objects and how, if at all, their authenticity can be preserved.
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The Cosmonauts challenge
This paper investigates how the development of new contacts and partnerships has contributed not only to the loan of material of historic significance to the Science Museum’s exhibition, but more broadly changes perceptions about Russia and its space programme in the western world.
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Old weather: citizen scientists in the 19th and 21st centuries
This article sets current citizen science in historical perspective, looking particularly at the dedicated, democratic band of British Rainfall Observers, coordinated by G. J. Symons in the 19th century, who worked outside official structures but bequeathed to us historical records which are proving invaluable to climate science.
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Embedding plurality: exploring participatory practice in the development of a new permanent gallery
This paper contributes to a critical understanding of current language and discourses of participatory and co-creative practices, through a case study of a large, permanent exhibition development – the Science Museum's Information Age gallery – which opened in 2014.