RESEARCH & PUBLIC HISTORY 2016–2017 REPORT ANNUAL 1 CONTENTS TITLE AUTHOR PAGE Foreword Tilly Blyth 4 Enabling A Research Culture: The Work Of The SMG Research Department Tim Boon 5 Sound And Vision: The Second SMG Research Conference Michael Terwey 6 Conferences And Events Across The Year 8 Evolution Of The Museum Workshop Sandra Kemp 10 SMG Journal: Report On Progress 2016–2017 Kate Steiner 12 SMG’s Doctoral Scheme: Five Years On Bergit Arends 14 Oramics: A Practice-Led Investigation Of An Electronic Musical Instrument Tom Richards 16 Germ Consciousness In Britain’s Workplaces Laura Newman 18 Use And Misuses Of Chemicals In The British Home, 1930s–1980s Cat Rushmore 19 Modern Physics In The Museum: What Can Objects Tell Us? Alison Boyle 20 A New History Of Applied Science Robert Bud 22 Metropolitan Science: New Insights On Early Modern London’s Rebekah Higgitt 24 Institutions And Cultures Of Practice And Knowlegde Bradford’s National Museum: Connecting Bradford Lynn Wray 26 With The National Science And Media Museum Energy In Store: What Our Collections Mean To Those Who Care Elizabeth Haines, Jessica 28 Bradford, Jack Kirby and Anna Woodham National Science And Media Museum Research Highlights, 2016–2017 Michael Terwey 32 Research And Public History At The National Railway Museum 2016–2017 Ed Bartholomew and Oli Betts 34 Museum Of Science And Industry Research Highlights, 2016–2017 Georgina Young 36 What Science Capital Means: Learning Research Across SMG Karen Davies and Jane Rayner 38 Wellcome Trust Secondment Fellowship Scheme Tim Boon 42 Research Projects At The Science Museum Archives Beata Bradford 44 SMG Publications And Presentations, Academic Year 2016–2017 46 Our Students 50 Opportunities To Study And Research With Us Tim Boon 54 Cover: Medical Research in a sound-proof room. This photograph, Our Team 56 from NSMM’s Daily Herald Archive is emblematic of our Bradford Museum’s new emphasis on sound as well as vision, a feature also of our annual research conference. FOREWORD ENABLING A RESEARCH CULTURE: TILLY BLYTH THE WORK OF THE SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP Head of Collections and Principal Curator RESEARCH DEPARTMENT TIM BOON Head of Research and Public History Welcome to our third Research Annual Our collaborative doctoral Research is often a long-term we have grown a network of heritage organisations and Report, covering the academic year programme now features a regular business. This is obviously the case participants and publics who now universities. In a similar way the 2016–2017. This year sees the Science crop of graduations, and so it is a when we want to apply funded see the Science Museum Group Science Museum Group Journal Museum Group’s research hitting its great pleasure for us to be able to academic research in a linear ‘R&D’ as an organisation that does continues to grow, experimenting stride across the breadth of our feature reports from our alumni, model to the narratives and content interesting things in music. in forms as it benefits from – and activity and our museums in London, this year from students studying of galleries and exhibitions. Here the contributes to – SMG’s wider This approach represents a model Bradford, Manchester and York. electronic music, germ culture and cycle of project conception, grant community of curators and scholars. for how to develop research activity chemicals in the home. Bergit Arends application, consideration and Our academic conferences and in a way that is appropriate to a public It feels appropriate at this stage of provides a retrospective of the (where funded) execution of the workshops are really putting us organisation: producing public outputs SMG’s research journey actively to programme’s first five years and you research will generally take several on the map. The complete list we as it organically pursues its research combine the forward-looking and will also find listings of all the doctoral years. That is an anticipatory sense: feature within is testament to the questions, creating a public for the retrospective perspectives to develop projects under way, funded by the Arts we are always having to ask ourselves, range of topics where we have found galleries and exhibitions that will what we do. During the composition and Humanities Research Council and what must we do now so that research common cause with colleagues in ultimately be created drawing on its of this report we have been developing co-supervised by our university friends will be beneficial in the future. But the universities and other museums, findings. It is a model that we will be a new SMG Research Strategy which and colleagues. The Wellcome Trust is there is also a retrospective sense: from robot futures and architectural applying in new areas as we look aims to do just that; I will report on generously funding secondments for to look back on the work we have Brutalism to the challenges of forward to the new displays that will that in the next issue. its postdocs and doctoral students to done, often opportunistically, and representing the trauma of World War grace the Group’s museums in the work in SMG Museums, and the first of to see how it has organically grown One. The second Annual Research decade from 2020. these made significant contributions into something of value. Conference was held at the National to two exhibitions in the year under The projects and activities that Science and Media Museum last Our work on sound and music is review. This year also saw the beginning feature in this third annual report November (strictly beyond the a good case in point. When the of three significant research projects: may be seen in the light of this framing reporting year, but of it). Here, in Science Museum programmed of the National Science and Media of the long gestation of research. addition to staff and students talking a live performance of Brian Eno’s Museum’s potential audiences; of Our conferences and workshops are about their current research, we had music for Apollo – to mark the Moon science in early-modern London, intended to bring together people with a special theme of ‘sound and vision’, landing’s 40th anniversary in 2009 – and; knowledge exchange on SMG’s interests in particular areas, whether which allowed the museum to show we did not know that this would be energy collections. that be our research community off its new subject focus and to look the root of an enterprise that, eight finding common ground away from towards major permanent galleries. At the same time, Robert Bud’s project years later, would be feeding into their ‘day jobs’ in their research on the meaning of applied science is our thinking about not only a interests or, for example, historians reaching maturity, so we have included temporary exhibition on science, of museums delighting in the similar a progress report here. technology and music under histories of museums of science and development at our museum in Virtually all our research activities are of ethnography at the Evolution of Manchester, but also permanent carried-out in collaboration – with Museums workshop. galleries on sound and vision at other museums and with university the National Science and Media Equally, the selection of collaborative colleagues. If you’d like to join in, then Museum in Bradford. Along the way doctoral projects under our AHRC please get in touch (contact details at there have been several more concerts funding demonstrates development the end); we’d love to hear from you. exploring the relationships of music as we have learned and applied and technology, an exhibition and reflection on the kinds of project book of essays on electronic music, that best benefit the students and a research network, a conference, the museums and archives in our two doctorates, a special issue of an CDP consortium, not to mention the academic journal and a special section broader community of those studying of our own journal. All along the way, and supervising CDP projects across 4 5 SOUND AND VISION: THE SECOND SMG RESEARCH CONFERENCE MICHAEL TERWEY Head of Collections and Exhibitions, National Science and Media Museum To mark the rebranding and renaming University of Leicester on the new of a focus on objects and collections of the National Science and Media challenges for museums in the post- in the presentations from Bob Gwynne Museum, the 2017 Science Museum digital age. We were also treated to from the National Railway Museum Group Research Conference explored a talk on the audio interfaces and and Alice Cliff from the Museum the theme of ‘Sound and Vision in transport collections held by the of Science and Industry, and the Science Museums’. It was the second Museum of Portable Sound from the audience were delighted and annual Research Conference and joint winner of the Science Museum entertained by clips from the rich showcased work from across the Group Journal Writing Prize 2017, and varied film archives at the National Science Museum Group, our partners John Kannenberg. Railway Museum on which Angélique and our collaborators in institutions Bonamy gave an overview. Objects Other papers reflected the diverse of higher education. and collections were highlighted in and expanding culture of research presentations given by Ian Christie A strand of the conference explored across the Science Museum Group, of Birkbeck, University of London, sound in museums, reflecting the new with a series of presentations by who gave an object talk on one of the focus of the National Science and members of Group staff on subjects stars of our collection, Robert Paul’s Media Museum on image and sound relating to the history and practice Theatrograph, and James Mooney, technologies.