Welcome to Issue 21 of the Science Museum Group Journal. This issue features a special collection of four articles exploring some of the most significant scientific acquisitions made in recent decades, that of Professor Stephen Hawking’s office at the Science Museum Group and the papers of Professor Hawking at the University of Cambridge. Here Tilly Blyth and Alison Boyle discuss the process of acquiring more than a thousand individual objects from the Office; Hannah Redler-Hawes reflects on curating an international exhibition featuring objects from the Office alongside the work of other celebrated physicists and contemporary artists; Juan-Andres Leon provides a detailed object biography of Hawking’s famous blackboard; and Katrina Dean and Susan Gordan discuss the mediation of the Hawking Archive acquired by Cambridge University Library. Together the papers explore key questions raised as we begin to organise, display and interpret this extraordinary legacy.
Also in the issue, ‘Objects of the Mind’ by Tim Snelson et al discusses a collaborative research project that tapped into public interest in objects (from the Museums’ mental health and film collections) and in popular films (supplied by partners StudioCanal). Look out for three new films that (re)combine museum objects, feature film clips and expert interviews to engage new audiences with research on the interactions of psychiatry and cinema. Exhibition and book reviews add to the issue, which is completed by a tribute to the late Jim Bennett, historian of science and Director of the History of Science Museum in Oxford, who contributed so much to the Science Museum and to this Journal as an advisor and friend.
