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Annual Report 1 August 2008 – 31 July 2009

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Annual Report 1 August 2008 – 31 July 2009 Annual Report 1 AUGUSt 2008 – 31 JulY 2009 1 CONTENTS Highlights Highlights Library and Archives Visitor Numbers Visitor Numbers Visitor numbers have continued to grow, rising ‘Compass & Rule’ by one third to 134,974, compared with the Galileo in Florence p.15 previous year’s record figure of 100,865. On SIS Exhibition one Saturday in July there were 2,414 visitors ‘Telescopes Now’ with 623 on the following Sunday, taking us Collections on display, in store to over 3,000 for the weekend. and online Public Programme, Exhibitions, Outreach and Education p.3 Exhibitions Education Service Primary Schools’ Programme “Record Collections Secondary Schools’ Programme Management and Sharing Expertise Public Programme Figures” Conservation Family Friendly Programme p.17 Collections Management Overview Acquisitions Object Display and Movement Documentation Storage Information and Emergency Planning and Response Communication Researchers Filming and photography Technology 140000 Loans Increasing Temporary displays Web development 120000 Work placements visitor figures: Information technology Other visits 100000 Training received 2008-9: 134,974 Conservation p.26 2007-8: 100,865 80000 2006-7: 97,066 Teaching, Research 60000 Series1 p.6 2005-6: 70,131 and the Discipline 2004-5: 70,791 40000 Staff Publications, Lectures and 2003-4: 53,796 Seminars 20000 Museum Staff 2002-3: 46,838 Staff in post at the end of 2008-9 0 Casual Gallery Assistants 2002- 2003- 2004- 2005- 2006- 2007- 2008- Museum Visitors 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 p.27 2 3 highlights highlights Compass & Rule SIS Exhibition “ the Museum The exhibition ‘Compass & Rule: For the first time the Museum architecture as mathematical collaborated with the Scientific practice in England, 1500-1750’ collaborated Instrument Society to bring a large was our most ambitious undertaking group of privately-owned instruments in scholarly exhibitions to date. Aside with the into the public galleries. Displayed from the Museum’s own material, in three showcases in the Entrance there were 68 objects borrowed Gallery and distributed throughout Scientific from 23 lenders, included the British our permanent displays, the aim was Museum, the British Library, the Royal to demonstrate the complementary Instrument Collection, the National Archives, Sir contributions to the discipline made by John Soane’s Museum, the Science museums and private collectors. This Museum, National Museums Scotland, Society to was a modification of an arrangement and colleges and museums in Oxford already undertaken twice with the and Cambridge. bring a large Antiquarian Horological Society. An illustrated catalogue by Anthony group of Gerbino and Stephen Johnston was published by Yale University Press. privately- Among many achievements for the ‘Telescopes Now’ collections staff in the context of owned this exhibition, we managed to meet real stories of astronomy today A series of four public lectures on all the stringent conditions for the TelescopesNow recent astronomy was held throughout February. Each Tuesday evening Government Indemnity scheme to series of weekly lectures by eminent instruments A astronomers: cover the loans. This was our first such insiders’ accounts of building and using some of lecture was given by a distinguished our most important instruments. astronomer engaged in the design, into the agreement. Tuesday 3 February Professor Alexander Boksenberg The William Herschel and the Hubble Telescopes development and management of major instruments. The idea was to take Tuesday 10 February Professor Phil Diamond public Jodrell Bank, the Lovell Telescope and e-MERLIN a modern look, 400 years after Galileo, Tuesday 17 February Professor Roger Davies at the practical, political, technical, The Gemini Telescopes financial and organisational challenges galleries.” Tuesday 24 February Professor Alan Watson that face telescope builders today. The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory Treating so recent a topic was novel for the Museum, as was the fact that Galileo in Florence Doors open 6.30pm SUNDIAL AND QIBLA INDICATOR BROAD SHEET communicates the work of the Lecture at 7pm all the lectures were recorded and are Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. Times of prayer and the sacred direction for praying – towards Mecca – are important elements of It is posted on the Museum’s website, Islamic observance and the astronomical and sold in the shop, and distributed to members A large and important collection of available as podcasts on the Museum’s geometrical challenges they present have given of the mailing list, see www.mhs.ox.ac.uk. rise to a variety of ingenious instruments. This ADMISSIONFREE one combines a sundial and a ‘Qibla indicator’ (for direction). The horizontal pin-gnomon dial is instruments was loaned to the Palazzo website. on the upper section of the plate (see left-hand illustration) and would have indicated the time No.8 in ‘Babylonian hours’, i.e. counted from sunrise, Broad Sheet is produced by the but the hinged gnomon for casting the shadow Museum of the History of Science, Oxford Strozzi in Florence for the exhibition is missing, as is the magnetic compass that Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3AZ was set in the circular hole. The lower section Tel +44(0)1865 277280 Fax +44(0)1865 277288 of the plate, though now incomplete, was used Web: www.mhs.ox.ac.uk to find the Qibla, in combination with a table of Email: [email protected] ‘Galileo: Images of the Universe from geographical data on various places engraved on the reverse (see right). This Persian instrument is unsigned but dates from the eighteenth century. Antiquity to the Telescope’, marking the Collections on display, Inventory no. 48472 £1.00 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of in store and online Sundials OXFORD in FLORENCE the telescope to study the heavens. ROMAN PORTABLE SUNDIAL We have installed a large new showcase in the THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY OF A rare example of the tiny number of in the Julian calendar. Once these surviving portable sundials from the adjustments have been made, the Roman era. There are two discs, the dial can be suspended vertically Galileo’S TELESCOPIC DISCOVERIES The loans included some of our most Small Basement Gallery (the first since the major smaller turning in a central recess in and turned until the shadow of the the larger. This adjustment allows gnomon falls on the curved hour- The Museum of the History of Science is lending some from our international collection should contribute the instrument to be set for a range of scale, indicating the time. On the of its most famous instruments to a special exhibition to the celebration. The exhibition is organised by the latitudes, according to a scale on the back of the large disc are engraved to be held in Florence from 13 March till 30 August Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Istituto e Museo famous instruments and Broadsheet redevelopment of c.2000), fitted extensive, high- larger disc marked ‘XXX’ - ‘LX’. The the latitudes, given in degrees, of 30 2009, ‘Galileo. Images of the Universe from Antiquity di Storia della Scienza, is curated by Professor Paolo curved piece which rotates above the provinces of the Roman Empire. For smaller disc is a combined hour scale nearly every province, the latitude to the Telescope’. The instruments include unique Galluzzi, and will be held in the Palazzo Strozzi (www. and gnomon (the part of a sundial cited is the mean of the range of items closely associated with the Museum, such as palazzostrozzi.org). This issue of Broadsheet deals no. 8, ‘Oxford in Florence’, was quality storage units in the lower study, and extended that casts the shadow). This is set latitudes given for that province by the ‘spherical astrolabe’ and the ‘geared astrolabe’. with the instruments in Florence that are normally for date (solar declination) against Ptolemy. The dial is thought to date We apologise that they will be gone during the on display here. One side has instruments applied to a scale on the smaller disc, ranging from the 3rd century A.D. but the summer months, when we have many visitors, but the astronomical calculations; on the other they are used from ‘VIII K IAN’ (=25th December) maker is not known. published to cover their absence. So our collections management system to serve the online for the winter solstice to ‘VIII K IVL’ anniversary of Galileo’s work is an international event as representations of the heavens. (=24th June) for the summer solstice Inventory no. 51358 whose focus is properly located in Florence, and items this year saw our most ambitious and collections database accessible through our website. challenging work in dealing with both loans-in (see ‘Compass & Rule’ above) Image credit: echiner1 on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/30567804@N00/583616150), Creative Commons license. and loans-out. Geared Astrolabe ASTROLABE WITH GEARED CALENDAR 4 This Persian astrolabe, made in Isfahan by 5 THE SPHERICAL ASTROLABE Muhammad ibn Abī Bakr al Ibarī,in 1221/2, contains a geared calendar movement and is the Astrolabes generally present the stars and the path oldest geared machine in existence in a complete of the sun on a flat surface using a planispheric state. One side is an astrolabe and is connected projection, in the manner of a map of the world. to the calendar by a train of gears. It illustrates an This is the only complete example of a spherical important stage in the development of the various astrolabe, where the heavens retain the spherical complex astronomical machines from which the form they are assumed to have in traditional mechanical clock derives. The design is based astronomy. The solid sphere carries co-ordinate on a text by al-Bīrūnī (973-1048), who explained lines based on the horizon, while the bands that how a special train of gearing might be used to enclose it, forming a ‘rete’ or net, incorporate show the revolutions of the sun and moon at their circles for the equator and the ecliptic (the path relative rates and to demonstrate the changing of the sun) and carry pointers for the positions of phase of the moon, phenomena of fundamental prominent stars.
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