The Evolution of Science Museums

The Evolution of Science MuseumsAuthor(s): Silvio A. BediniSource: Technology and Culture, Vol. 6, No. 1, Museums of Technology (Winter, 1965), pp. 1-29Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Society for the History of TechnologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3100949 .

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The Evolution of Science Museums

SILVIO A. BEDINI

He who views only the produce of his own country may be said to inhabit a single world; while those who see and consider the pro- ductions of other climes bring many worlds in review before them.

C. LINNAEUS1

Science museums are generally considered newcomers in the field of museology inasmuch as the most outstanding of present scientific and technological museums have been established since the turn of the twentieth century. Yet, as shown in Table 1, the science museum traces its origins backward through time to the great private libraries and cabinets of curiosities of Renaissance princes, scholars, and wealthy amateurs. In fact, some of the scientific memorabilia included in these Ren- aissance cabinets have survived through the centuries to form the nucleus around which some of the modern science museums have grown.

Published works about the history of museums have never isolated the science museum as an entity nor attempted to separate it from its counterpart, the museum of natural history. For the purposes of this study, a science museum is defined as a repository for the preservation and exhibition of collections relating specifically to the physical sciences and technology.

Historically, the modern museum is derived from several types of collections. The earliest was the private treasure chamber, such as those of antiquity described by Homer, Cicero, and other classical authors. The personal motivations behind these collections were many and var-

Mr. Bedini is Curator of the Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Smithsonian Institution. He is the author of numerous works on the history of technology. In 1962 he was awarded the Abbott Payson Usher Award of the So- ciety for the History of Technology for his paper, "The Compartmented Cylindrical Clepsydra," Technology and Culture, Vol. III (Spring 1962).

1 C. Linnaeus, Musaeum Adolphi Friderici Regis (Stockholm, 1754); the Preface was translated by James Edward Smith as Reflections on the Study of Nature (Lon- don, 1758) and reprinted in his Tracts (London, 1798).

1



TABLE 1

EARLY SCIENCE COLLECTIONS AND MUSEUMS THROUGH THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Name Dates Location Collections Uses

r,

Denmark: Olaf (or Ole) Worm (1588- Mid-seventeenth century Copenhagen Natural and artificial curiosities, art objects Public 1654) Royal Copenhagen Muse- Early eighteenth century Copenhagen Natural and artificial curiosities, scientific and Public

um established by King mechanical apparatus Christian V (1671-1730)

France: Jean de Berry, Duke of Late fourteenth and early Clocks, rare games, foreign shells, magical objects, Private, visited by travelers

Burgundy (18340-1416) fifteenth century mechanical and scientific instruments

Fabri de Peirsec (1580- Early seventeenth century Aix Natural and artificial curiosities, manuscripts, Reference, visited by tray- 1637) antiquities elers

Maistre Pierre Borel 1640-70 Castres Antiquities, natural and artificial curiosities Catalogue published 1645

Conservatoire National des Established 1794, to pres- Paris Machines, mechanical models, and scientific in- Public study collection Arts et Metiers ent struments

Germany: Landgrave Wilhelm IV Late sixteenth century to Kassel Scientific instruments and apparatus, clocks Private research; now public

(1532-99) present reference collection

Elector Augustus I of Sax- Late sixteenth century to Dresden Kunst-und-Naturalienkammer; gems and jewel- Scientific research center ony (1553-86) present ry, coins and medals, art works, clocks, watches, Now Mathematische-Physi-

scientific instruments, and pharmaceutical ex- kalische Salon of the Zwin- hibits ger Palace

Emperor Rudolph II Late sixteenth and early Prague Art objects, Oriental idols and utensils, musical Research center for scholars (1552-1612) seventeenth century instruments, games, scientific instruments, and under imperial patronage tools

Prince Gottorp Seventeenth century Gottorp Natural and artificial curiosities Private reference collection available to public



TABLE 1-Continued


Germany-Continued Michele Bernhard Valen- Late seventeenth century Giessen "Things sacred and superstitious," mathematical, Private reference collection

tini (1657-1729) anatomical, surgical, chemical, philosophical visited by travelers; gener- apparatus, natural curiosities al public catalogue pub-

lished 1704

Casper F. Einckel (C. F. ........................ Hamburg Artifacts relating to the arts and sciences Private reference collection Neickelius)

Franz Ernst Briickmann Early seventeenth century Wdlfenbuttel Natural and artificial curiosities, scientific instru- Private, visited by travelers (1697-1758) ments, anatomical appliances, art objects

Great Britain: Charles I ca. 1645-49 London Fauxhall Proposed research

John Evelyn Seventeenth century Oxford Proposed a "Philosophic-Mathematic College"

Royal Society 1662-1781 London Scientific instruments and apparatus, "engines," Scientific research center; natural history specimens catalogue published 1683

John Tradescant, Sr. Early seventeenth century Lambeth, Natural and artificial curiosities, industrial art, Private study collection; cat- (?-1637), and Jr. (1608- London numismatics alogue published 1656; 62) purchased by Ashmole

1659

Elias Ashmole (1608-62) ...................................... Combined collection formed at Oxford Univer- University museum

sity in 1682. Ashmolean Museum.

John Bargrave Late seventeenth century Canterbury Archeological, scientific Published catalogue

Royal Scottish Museum Seventeenth century Edinburgh Started from private collections, became nucleus University museum of University Museum, later Edinburgh Muse- um of Science and Art, later Royal Scottish Museum (1904)

Science Museum of South Established 1857 London Science and technology Public Kensington

w



TABLE 1-Continued


Italy: Galeazzo Visconti (13847- 1380-1530 Pavia Armillary sphere, terrestrial and celestial globes, Reference library; used by

1402) manuscripts and chained books, de'Dondi as- Petrarch and da Vinci and trarium visiting scholars

Museo Medici: ca. 1560 to present Florence Coins and medals, arms and armor, paintings and Private collection became Lorenzo the Magnificent sculpture, carved gemstones and carved semi- scientific research center

(1449-92) precious stones, scientific instruments and ap- and subsequently formed Archduke Cosimo I paratus nucleus of Gabinetto di

(1519-74) Fisica e di Storia Naturale; Francesco 1 (1541-87) opened to public 1775 Cardinal Giovanni Carlo

(1611-63) Ferdinand II (1610-70) Prince Mattias (1618-77) Cardinal Leopold (1617-

75)

Pier Andrea Mattioli (1501- Mid-sixteenth century Siena Natural and artificial curiosities Private reference collection 77)

Giulio Cesare Scaliger Mid-sixteenth century Milan Natural and artificial curiosities Private reference collection (1484-1558)

Girolamo Cardano (1501- Mid-sixteenth century Milan Natural and artificial curiosities Private reference collection 76)

Andrea Cesalpini (1519- Mid-sixteenth century to Florence Natural and artificial curiosities, herbarium Public reference collection 1608) present

Gian Vincenzo Pinelli Late sixteenth century Milan Mathematical and philosophical instruments, Private library (1535-1601) coins, medals, fossils, archeological relics

Michele Mercati (1541-93) Late sixteenth century San Miniato Natural and artificial curiosities, botanical Reference collection for public use

Francesco Calzolari (or Late sixteenth century Verona Natural curiosities, arms and armor, lighting de- Public collection; visited by Calceolari) (fl. 1566-86) vices, ancient inscriptions, statuary, weapons travelers

46



TABLE 1-Continued


Italy-Continued Mapheus Cusanus ........................ Verona Medicine and pharmacy Public

Ferrante and Francesco Im- Late sixteenth to early Naples Natural history Research perati seventeenth century

Museo Borgiano Seventeenth century Rome Natural and artificial curiosities collected by mis- Maintained by office of the sionaries Propaganda Fide

Nicolao Gualtieri (1688- Early seventeenth century Florence Natural and artificial curiosities Catalogue published 1742; 1744) reference collection visited

by travelers

Monsignor Giovanni Gius- 1677-98 Rome Archeological artifacts, natural curiosities, scien- Research center for Accade- tino Ciampini tific apparatus and instruments mia Fisicomatematica Ro-

mana

Conte de Luigi Ferdinando Late seventeenth century Bologna Books, scientific instruments, art, mechanisms, Private scientific research Marsigli (1658-1730) to 1803 natural curiosities center; became Istituto

delle Scienze at University of Bologna with observatory, physical cabinet and laboratory; then became part of University; catalogue published early nineteenth century

Giacomo Zanoni (1615-82) Late seventeenth century Bologna Natural and artificial curiosities, botanical Reference collection visited by scholars and travelers

Signor Micconi Late seventeenth and Genoa Natural and artificial curiosities, botanical Noted by Joseph Addison early eighteenth century

Ulisse Aldrovandi (1527- Mid-sixteenth and early Bologna Natural and artificial curiosities, minerals and Public collection and scientif- 1605) seventeenth century metals, scientific instruments ic research center; cata-

logue published 1678

t-I1



TABLE 1-Continued


Italy-Continued Senator Ferdinando Cospi Galeria Settala Late sixteenth century to Milan Artificial curiosities, including chemical prepara- Scientific research center for

Lodovico Settala (1552- eighteenth century tions, scientific instruments, perpetual-motion visiting scholars; catalogue 1633) machines, automatons, optical instruments, published 1666

Manfredo Settala (1600- locks and keys, arms and armor, numismatics, 1630) etc.

Musco Kircheriano 1651 to present Rome Art, natural curiosities, scientific instruments and Visited by scholars; research apparatus, machines and mechanisms, autom- center ata, archeological and ethnological artifacts, pharmaceutical and botanical

Netherlands: Pieter Teyler van der Hulst Late eighteenth century to Haarlem Experimental apparatus, scientific instruments Established as a Stichting or

present foundation for scientific research with M. van Ma- rum as first director

United States: Samuel Vaughan Late eighteenth century Philadelphia Philosophical apparatus, "petrifactious fossils" Private reference collection

Library Company of Phila- Early eighteenth century Philadelphia Natural-history specimens, some scientific appa- Reference collection delphia ratus

American Philosophical So- Late eighteenth century Philadelphia Scientific instruments, mechanical models, inven- Reference collection ciety tions, natural curiosities

Dr. Abraham Chovet 1774 Philadelphia Wax museum of anatomical specimens Public museum

American Museum 1782 Philadelphia Natural history

Charles Willson Peale 1784 Philadelphia Lectures, machine models, natural and artificial General public (1741-1827) curiosities

Robert Leslie 1789-93 Philadelphia Models of machines and tools, relating to arts, Research, public edification manufactures, and technology in general

Gardner Baker (?-1799) 1792-1800 New York Wax works with exhibits of new inventions, such General public as automatic air gun, patent steam jack, guillo- tine, self-moving carriage

C",



The Evolution of Science Museums 7

ied: hoarding wealth for personal security, a craving for possessions, and the acquiring of valuables for social prestige. These private treasures developed into patristic collections, the historical relics of a family, community, organization, or nation.2

Particularly popular among collectors were objects claimed to be en- dowed with magical or supernatural powers. The favorites were those promising healing, extension of normal life, and increase of fertility and sexual powers. As men became more inquisitive about their natural en- vironment, they viewed these magical objects as "natural curiosities." The close relationships among magic, primitive science, and early reli- gion may perhaps be seen in the fact that the temple of the Syrian god- dess at Hieropolis displayed barbaric garments, the jawbone of a snake, and the tusks of an elephant, while in the temple of Juno Astarte at Carthage were exhibited skins of hairy savage women from Africa.

In Western Christendom during the Middle Ages natural curiosities and magical objects rivaled holy relics and ecclesiastical treasures for popular attention. To this nucleus were later added artifacts brought back from foreign lands by travelers, pilgrims, and crusaders. These treasuries attracted not only the pious but also those whose curiosity surpassed their piety. Outstanding examples were the famous collections of the Cathedral of St. Mark's in Venice and the monastery of St. Denis in France, both of which still survive and continue to draw considerable crowds.

The earliest scientific collections date from the general revival of interest in science during the Renaissance and early modern times. The increase of fluid capital, the interest in all that pertained to classical antiquity, and a prevalent desire of each man to leave his particular mark on history led to a resurgence of private collections. As the general spirit of inquiry and invention became more widespread, natural and artificial curiosities were added to the customary archeological relics, coins and medals and statues. Frequently the collectors were themselves scholars, or wealthy amateurs, eager to make their collections available to interested scholars. As the scholars became more involved with the collections, the number and importance of scientific artifacts and memorabilia increased. Similarly, scientific libraries associated with these collections developed. In this manner the early science museums became both an effect and a cause of the Renaissance. Their collections of natural curiosities were the prototypes of our natural history museums, combining rocks and minerals, fossils, anatomical and botanical specimens, and stuffed animals from all over the world.

2 Alma Stephanie Wittlin, The Museum, Its History and Its Tasks in Education (London, 1949), chap. iii.



8 Silvio A. Bedini

Our modern museums of physical science and technology had their origins in another type of collection, that of "artificial curiosities." This category featured works of man as distinguished from works of nature. Of particular interest were the tools of travelers and explorers, as well as of early mathematical practitioners. Included among these were globes, drafting instruments, maps, compasses, and astrolabes. Also found in these collections were primitive stone and metal tools, machines and mechanisms, automata, arms and armor, lighting devices, and locks and keys.

By the end of the Renaissance these collections had become numerous. Some of them not only formed the prototypes but were actual beginnings of the several great museums which flourished in the seventeenth century. So numerous did the private collections available to the public become that, by the beginning of the seventeenth century, lists of them were being compiled and published as guides for travelers.3

The first great science museums, in every sense of the word, came into being in seventeenth-century Germany, Italy, and England. The evolution from private cabinets into museums as public centers of research and learning was considerably influenced by the natural philoso- phers of that time, the same men who simultaneously supported the newly developing scientific academies. These curiosi, otiosi, and virtuosi -curious and very able men with leisure time-advocated the use of knowledge as a means of exercising control over nature and the development of human ingenuity and superiority. They recognized the value of natural and artificial curiosities for the study of the natural world and of history. The scope of the major collections assembled in this period is indicative of the wide interests of these Renaissance scholars, men who strove to be uomini universali.

By this time the collecting of both natural and artificial curiosities was recognized and recommended as a means of supplying materials for research into the past and of preserving artifacts of history for the future. Perhaps the best statement of this was to be found in the declara- tion of purpose of the first Society of Antiquaries, established in Lon- don in 15724

s Pierre Borel, Les Antiquitez, Raretez, . . . de la Ville et Comte de Castres d'Albigeois (Castres, 1649), "Roolle des principaux cabinets curieux, et autre choses remarquables qui se voyent en principales Villes de I'Europe"; Jakob Spon, Re- cherches des Antiquitis et Curiosites de la Ville de Lyon (Lyon, 1673); Johann Daniel Major, Dissertatio epistolica de cancris et serpentibus petrefactis (Jena, 1664); and Daniel Wihelm Moeller, Sylloge aliquot scriptorum de bene ordinanda et ornanda bibliotheca (Frankfort, 1728), "Commentatio de technophysiotameis," pp. 228 ff. 4 Archaeologia, London, Vol. I (1770).




... to contribute to separate falsehood from truth and tradition from evidence; to sift history by the sagacity of modern criticism, in an age wherein every part of science is advancing to perfection, and in a nation not afraid of penetrating into the remotest periods of their origin, or of deducting from it anything that may reflect dishonour to them.

The word "museum" did not come into general usage until the late sixteenth century. It was derived from the Greek word mouseion mean- ing "a temple of the Muses" and related to any center in which learning was cultivated.5 It was first revived to describe the great Medici collection in Florence, which combined art objects and natural and artificial curiosities with one of the earliest collections relating to the physical sciences and technology.

Prior to the general application of the word "museum," collections of artificial curiosities were known by various designations.

In France the favored phrase was cabinet de curiosite, denoting a study or closet in which a collection of rarities was displayed. The term was subsequently adopted into other languages as well and used particularly to describe private princely collections.' Interestingly enough, the terminology persisted well into the eighteenth century, long after the objects collected ceased to be mere curiosities. The Ger- man designations were Raritdtenkammer, Raritdtenkabinet, and Kunst- kammer, of which the latter was the most popular and continued in general use. The Italians used the terms tribuna and galeria, the latter being derived from the shape of the long, high-ceilinged salons in which the collections were exhibited. In the eighteenth century Dr. Samuel Johnson defined a museum as "a repository of learned curiosities," with the result that "repository" became common usage in England to describe museum collections.

One of the earliest great collections which formed a link between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was that of the Duke of Burgundy, Jean de Berry (1340-1416). It was particularly significant because of the impressive array of clocks and mechanical and scientific instruments; these combined interest in human invention and skills with an under- standing of nature, as distinguished from the common emotional re- sponse to curiosities.6 5 E. M. Forster, Alexandria, A History and A Guide (Garden City, N.Y., 1961),

pp. 19-20, 31-32, 113. Even in ancient times a museum implied research and preservation of objects. Considerable emphasis on science research and collection is to be found even in the great Mouseion established at Alexandria in the third century B.C. by Demetrius Phalerus for Ptolemy Soter.

6 The collections of the Dukes of Burgundy were by far the most important of the fifteenth century but after de Berry's defeat at the battle at Agincourt in



10 Silvio A. Bedini

Next of importance in the evolution of science museums were three German private collections of natural and artificial curiosities which developed into major collections of scientific instruments and became centers of scientific research during the sixteenth century. In Prague, Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612) filled four vaulted rooms in his castle with objects gathered from the world of his time, and he brought together and supported many of the finest artisans and scholars of Eu- rope.7 The best known of the artisans who worked in the Emperor's shops was Erasmus Habermel, and some of the instruments he produced there have survived as unquestionably the finest in the world. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) spent his last two years at the Emperor's residence, and Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), who served during many of his most productive years as "Imperial Mathematician" in Prague, named his planetary "Rudolphine Tables" for his imperial patron.

The Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse (1532-92) at Kassel not only collected scientific apparatus and instruments in great profusion but was himself a student of mathematics and astronomy. During his father's reign, he made celestial observations with instruments made and installed by his craftsmen under a movable roof in the castle. Christoffel Rothmann was employed as an astronomer, and Justus Burgius (1522- 1632) produced instruments and improved clocks for astronomical observations. Wilhelm's successors made substantial additions to the collection. Landgrave Karl (1670-1730) visited Italy in 1700 for the specific purpose of acquiring new optical instruments from Giuseppe Campani (1635-1715). Later additions included instruments made by Christian Breithaupt, who founded an industry for scientific instruments at Kassel, and instruments used by members of the faculty of the Kasseler Hohern Gewerbeschule in the nineteenth century. The original sixteenth-century collection has today become a most important science museum: the Astronomische-Physikalische Kabinett of the Hessischen Landesmuseum.8

1415, much of the famous goldsmith work in his collection was sent to the mint to provide funds for state expenses. The objects that escaped destruction eventually found their way to the collections of the Hapsburgs at Vienna, who were related by marriage, and to the royal palace at Madrid. See J. Schlosser, Die Schatzkammer des Allerhoechsten Kaiserhauses (Vienna 1918); J. Schlosser, Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spaetrenaissance (Leipzig, 1908).

7 A. Ventury, "Zur Geschichte der Kunstsammlungen Kaiser Rudolph," "Reper- torium fuer Kunstgescbichte (Stuttgart, 1885).

8Ernst Dippel, "Die Astronomisch-Physikalische Sammlung in Hessischen Landesmuseum zu Kassel," Mitteilungen des Hessiscben Bezirksvereins Deutscher Ingenieure, XVIII (June, 1928), 1-9; A. Coester and E. Gerland, Beschreibung der




It was in the workshops of Landgrave Wilhelm IV that many of the scientific instruments were produced that became part of the Dresdener Kunstkammer formed by Elector Augustus I (1530-86) of Saxony. The Elector was inspired by the writings of the mineralogist Georgius Agricola (1494-1555) to form a Kunst-und-Naturalienkammer, embrac- ing both the arts and sciences. Like the other major collections of the period, the Kunstkammer developed into a research center. Begun in 1560, it was installed in seven great rooms of the Griine Gewolbe (Green Vaults) of the royal palace in Dresden. Featured were works in precious metals, art objects, treasure chests, mathematical instruments, mechanical tools, mirrors, objects of nature, and works in stone and metal. His son and successor, Elector Christian, amplified the collections with his own acquisitions, as did each of the subsequent Saxon rulers. In the seventeenth century an apothecary shop and a laboratory were an- nexed to the museum. Both were filled with important specimens and were actively employed in furthering research in connection with the collections they contained.9

One of the earliest museum complexes in history resulted from the rapid growth of the Kunstkammer at Dresden. The collections had grown so considerably that the scientific instruments had to be transferred to the Zwinger palace to form a Mathematische-Physikalische Salon. The Green Vaults remained the repository for the royal treasures, and the art works and natural-history collections were later housed in special buildings designed for the purpose. A special feature of the museum at Dresden, which was later occasionally copied in other museums, was a cabinet d'ignorance for the display of curiosities which could not be named or classified, and for which the visitors were invited to suggest identifications.

The science museum achieved its greatest prominence in Italy during the second half of the seventeenth century, where five large scientific collections combined with research centers flourished simultaneously at Bologna, Florence, and Rome. The museum of Ulisse Aldro- vandi (1527-1605) at Bologna became a monument to his consuming

Sammlung Astronomischer, Geoddtischer und Physikalischer Apparate im Kdnigl. Museum zu Kassel (Kassel, 1878), and Paul Adolph Kirchvogel, "Astronomisch- mechanische Kunstwerke in Kassel aus der Zeit der Spiit renaissance," Hessenland, No. 3/4 (1939), pp. 69-78.

9 Hermann Adolph Drechsler, Katalog der Sammlung des K6nigl. mathematisch- physikalischen Salons (Dresden, 1874); Wilhelm Gotthelf Lohrmann, Die Samm- lungen der matbematisch-physikaliscben Instruments auf der Modelkammer in Dresden (Dresden, 1835); J. G. T. Graesse, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Green Vaults (Dresden, 1874).



12 Silvio A. Bedini

ambition to record all of external nature in an encyclopedia of natural history illustrated by artists he employed for this purpose. One painter was paid 200 crowns a year for a period of 30 years for this work. Although Aldrovandi's primary interest was in metals, both as minerals and as manufactured products, the collection embraced many fields. Remnants of this great enterprise have survived at the University of Bologna where his manuscript works are also preserved.x0

Subsequently the Aldrovandi museum was merged with that of an amateur physicist and mechanician named Senator Ferdinando Cospi of Bologna to form the Museo Cospiano which was particularly popular with visitors on the Continent." Cospi achieved personal note as the nobilo mechanico of his time and he did much to popularize the museum as a scientific center. It might be noted in passing that the catalogue of his collection featured "instruments (-of mathematics, -of astronomy, -of geometry, -of music, -of war)."

The greatest center of scientific activity in Italy grew around the museum assembled by the Medici merchant princes at Florence. The collections had been begun by Archduke Cosimo I (1519-74), who specialized in numismatics, arms and armor, and paintings and sculpture. This nucleus was supplemented by additions made by his son, Francesco I (1541-87), of gemstones and works carved in rock crystal and other semiprecious stones, many of which were produced in his own palace

1to Ulisse Aldrovandi, Musaeum metallicum in libros iiii distributum, Ambrosinus composuit (Bologna, 1648). It was inevitable that Aldrovandi's exhaustive projects exhausted him as well, and he died in a Bologna hospital in 1605, totally blind and poor. He left behind him a tremendous mass of works in manuscript. The Senate of Bologna, cognizant of Aldrovandi's contributions, employed two professors of the University of Bologna, Thomas Dempster and John Cornelius Uterverius, to edit the manuscripts and prepare them for publication. Only a small part of the manuscripts was published, however, and almost three hundred manuscripts in Aldrovandi's own hand remain to the present time in the Museo Universitario at Bologna, hopefully to be studied and rendered into published form by future scholars.

Aldrovandi's published works filled 13 large folio volumes; the first of which appeared in 1599. His Musaeum metallicum described rare rocks, minerals, earths, and metals, as well as fossils and primitive stone tools, and treated metals not only in their natural state but in their manufactured use as well.

Bologna boasted of several other important collections, of somewhat later date than that of Aldrovandi. The botanist and apothecary, Giacomo Zanoni (1615- 82), established a museum of natural and artificial rarities which was often visited by travelers from other countries. It was continued after his death by his son, Pellegrino.

11 L. L. Cremonese, Museo Cospiano annesso a quello del famoso Aldrovandi (Bologna, 1677).




workshops and which represented an unusual aspect of contemporary technology.12 During the reigns of the next several archdukes the number of art objects was substantially increased, and at the same time considerable emphasis was given to the tools of science. The earliest acquisitions in this category were maps and geographical designs executed by P. Buonsignori and Egnazio Danti to supplement the great astronomical clock of Lorenzo della Volpaia in the Palazzo Vecchio. Numerous clocks and mathematical instruments were already featured in the early inventories, and by the mid-seventeenth century the museum flourished into an active center for scientific research.

The four sons of Archduke Cosimo II were all enthusiasts of the new sciences, and all contributed important additions of scientific instruments and apparatus to the family museum. Cardinal Giovan'Carlo (1611-63) was a patron of inventors and instrument-makers in Rome; Prince Mattias (1613-67), returning from the Thirty Years' War in Germany, purchased an important selection of instruments in Augsburg and Nuremberg; Archduke Ferdinand II (1610-70) employed artisans in his palace workshops to produce instruments and apparatus for the use of scholars at his court as well as for his own scientific endeavors; and Prince Leopold (1617-75) initiated the Accademia del Cimento, the first scientific society.13

Even more significant than their scientific collections was the support which the Medici princes gave to scholars and artisans and the opportunity they provided for the two to work together. The scientific ad- vances of Galileo and his disciples were made under Medici protection and utilized the Medici collections, which were available for research and study. The scientific climate which prevailed in Florence for the great decade between 1657 and 1667 during which the Accademia flourished was never equaled again in the history of science. With the disbanding of the Accademia in 1667, its scientific instruments were carefully preserved in the Pitti Palace, and were subsequently enhanced by the private collections of Vincenzo Viviani and Robert Duddley. When the House of Lorraine supplanted the House of Medici early in the eighteenth century, the new rulers made every effort to rebuild the museum and scientific collections; and they became the nucleus of the Gabinetto di Fisica e di Storia Naturale, which was opened as a public

12 The history of this collection and the techniques and tools employed in the unusual aspect of the lapidary art is the subject of an article entitled "A Renais- sance Lapidary Lathe" to appear in a subsequent issue of Technology and Culture.

13 Giuseppe Boffitto, Gli Strumenti della scienza e la scienza degli strumenti (Florence, 1929); (Maria Luisa Bonelli), Catalogo degli strumenti del museo di storia della scienza (Florence, 1954).



14 Silvio A. Bedini

museum in 1775. Felice Fontana (1730-1803) was the first director of the new museum, and Giuseppe Pigri served as professor of mechanics. A special annex was constructed in which craftsmen produced a great variety of new scientific instruments, models, and apparatus for experimental use.

The Gabinetto developed and flourished into the nineteenth century. In 1801 it initiated the publication of a museum annual entitled Annali del Museo Imperiale di Fisica e di Storia Naturale di Firenze, which contained scholarly papers of extremely high quality. When Vincenzo Antinori became director in 1829 he appointed Leopoldo Nobili to teach physics and Giovanni Battista Amici to teach astronomy. Antinori also organized the first scientific congresses to be held in Italy, in 1839 and in 1841, and during his tenure the sciences developed, with the museum as the scientific center. After 1859, when Cosimo Ridolfi suc- ceeded Antinori as director, the institution declined until the first decades of the twentieth century brought about its reorganization.14

Another museum which was begun late in the sixteenth century and which vied with the Florentine installation as a scientific center was established at Milan by Lodovico Settala (1552-1633) in his palace on the Via Pantano.'5 Not only was he a noted physician, but he was also well-known as a philosopher, a man of letters, and a member of the Accademia degli Inquieti. He accumulated numerous archeological relics, paintings, manuscripts and curiosities, which were displayed to visiting scholars. Upon his death, the library and the galleria were maintained by his son, Manfredo.

Under the direction of Manfredo Settala (1600-1630)18 the Galleria Settala (Fig. 1) flourished and expanded, particularly in the direction of the physical sciences and the manual arts. His primary preoccupation was with optics, and the collection featured a great variety of optical instruments. He used many of the telescopes for astronomical observations, and his experiments with the development of the microscope were contemporary with those of Galileo. Personally skilled in operat-

14Saggio del Real Gabinetto di Fisica e di storia naturale di Firenze (Rome, 1775); Guglielmo Righini, "La Tradizione Astronomica Fiorentina e l'Osservatorio di Arcetri," Physis, IV, fasc. 2 (1962), 139-48.

1t Lodovico Settala was a celebrated doctor of medicine who published many works in his field and achieved note for his work in the plague of 1630.

18 Manfredo Settala received degrees in law and languages, but he devoted himself to a study of the sciences-mathematical, physical, and mechanical. He traveled extensively in Italy and foreign countries to collect antiquities, works of art, and other rarities for the family museum. He was subsequently appointed canon of the Basilica of SS. Apostoli and became the director of the academy of painting at Milan.



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FIG. 2.-Interior of Kircher's Museum at the Collegio Romano, second half of seventeenth century. Reproduced from De Sepi Valesius' Romani Collegii Societatis Jesu Musaeum Celeberrimum ... (Rome, 1709). (Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.)




ing an ornamental turning lathe and desirous of reviving the art of turning in Italy, Settala exhibited numerous complicated miniatures which he had himself turned in wood, ivory, and other materials. The collection of timepieces, including many of Settala's own design and construction, was undoubtedly the largest and finest in Europe in this period. Also exhibited were numerous astrolabes, mathematical and mechanical devices, automata, perpetual-motion machines, and a large display of chemical apparatus."7

The Galleria Settala served as a scientific research center. Settala maintained close contact with the Florentine scientific community and exchanged thermometric and other instruments with Archduke Ferdi- nand II. Missionaries returning from the far comers of the world de- posited curiosities and manuscripts at the museum; princes sent gifts to the collection; and scientists visited Settala to observe his collections and his works in progress, and occasionally to donate specimens of interest.18 The museum remained in the family until 1751, when the Senate of Milan turned it over to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, where it remained on public view until World War II.19

It was from the Galleria Settala that the fourth great Italian science museum, the Museo Kircheriano in Rome (Fig. 2), derived its inspira- tion. It grew out of a private collection of art treasures and curiosities assembled by a public official named Alfonso Donnino, who willed it to the Jesuit Collegio Romano upon his death in 1651. Assembled in a corridor adjacent to the library, it was placed in the charge of Athana- sius Kircher, S. J. (1602-80). A more capable curator could not have been found than this professor of mathematics, physics, and Oriental

17 Pier Francesco Scarabelli, Museo o Galleria Adunata dal Sapere, e Dallo Studio del Sig. Canonico Manfredo Settala, . .. et hora in Italiano dal Sig. P. F. Scara- belli (Tortona, 1666).

18 Ray, op. cit., I, 202-9; John Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence (London, 1879), I, 275; The Works of Joseph Addison (London, 1811), II, 15 ff. "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, etc., in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703"; Letters Written to a Friend by the Judicious and Learned Sir Andrew Balfour, M.D. (Edinburgh, 1700), p. 245; Francis Maximilian Misson, A New Voyage to Italy (London, 1699), II, 196-98; and Bernard de Montfaucon, The Antiquities of Italy (London, 1725), pp. 16-17.

l9 Prior to the bombing of Milan in 1943, the manuscripts, books, and art treasures of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana were removed into safekeeping. Only the Settala collection remained on display and unprotected. Fragments and specimens which survived were collected into wooden crates and stored. Efforts of scholars to exam- ine the recovered remnants have been unsuccessful, and no inventory was ap- parently made after the bombing. Until the Biblioteca is ready to make an assess- ment of the remains, there is no way of knowing what has survived.



16 Silvio A. Bedini

languages at the Collegio. In this museum Kircher tried to present a relatively complete history of science and technology from antiquity to his time.20 The collection swelled with gifts from travelers and wealthy patrons and instruments used by his contemporaries. Kircher featured scientific apparatus, especially of optics, catoptrics, hydraulics, mathematics, magnetism, and medicine. He had operating models constructed of historical machines and mechanisms, with particular emphasis on cal- culating devices, perpetual-motion machines, and automata. For the study of man he exhibited an impressive array of archeological artifacts and ethnological specimens.21

After Kircher's death in 1680 the museum went into a period of decline and neglect, and many significant specimens were lost or stolen. Eventually the collection was placed in the charge of Filippo Bonanni, S. J. (1638-1725), a numismatist and enthusiast of the sciences. He completely reorganized the collections, moved them into better quarters, and acquired many significant gifts from members of the faculty of the Collegio Romano and their associates. A pharmaceutical laboratory, a well-equipped workshop, and botanical garden were subsequently added to the museum.22 Many contemporary accounts tell of scholars and travelers drawn from all over Europe to study at the Museo Kircheri- ano.23 In 1871 the scientific collections were removed to the newly established Museo delle Terme in Rome.24

Comparable to the Museo Kircheriano was the private museum assembled by Monsignor Giovanni Giustino Ciampini (163 3-98) of Rome, who had accumulated an impressive collection of archaeological artifacts and natural curiosities. In 1677 Ciampini became the first director of the Accademia Fisicomatematica Romana, founded under the patronage of Queen Christina of Sweden. This Accademia included all the foremost scientists in Italy and many foreign corresponding members. The members in Rome met twice weekly in Ciampini's palace to deliver papers on their work and to perform experiments in the physi-

20 Riccardo G. Villoslada, S.J., Storia del Collegio Romano (Rome, 1954), pp. 183-87, 232, 239.

21 Giorgio De Sepi Valesius, Romani Collegii Societatis Jesu Musaeum Celeber- rium (Amsterdam, 1678).

22 Rev. Filippo Bonanni, S.J., Musaeum Kircherianun ... in Collegio Romano Societatis Jesu jam pridem incoeptum, nuper restitutum, auctum, descriptum et iconibus illustratum (Rome, 1709).

23 Balfour, op. cit., p. 134; Misson, op. cit., II, 117; and Evelyn, op. cit., I, 125. 24 An exhaustive search made in Rome in May, 1963, by the author revealed that

the scientific collections had been stored in the Museo delle Terme in recent times and have since been removed to a Jesuit school in the rebuilt E.U.R. section of Rome.




cal sciences; the instruments and scientific apparatus used for this purpose were then exhibited in the museum. There were many similarities between the Ciampini museum and the Galleria Settala, for both were created for the pursuit of scientific investigations and both resulted in internationally recognized research centers.25

The fifth great Italian science museum of the seventeenth century which became an important scientific center was established in Bologna by the Conte de Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (1658-1730), a wealthy geographer, naturalist, and soldier. In addition to books, scientific instruments and apparatus, mechanisms, works of art, and antiquities, he amassed important collections of rocks and minerals and botanical specimens. He installed a laboratory in his home so that his friends and scholarly associates, who banded themselves into a group called the Philosophi Inquieti, could perform experiments in their various fields of competence. In 1690 Marsigli bequeathed his home, collections, and laboratory to the University of Bologna to be perpetuated as an institution for public instruction which was to be known as the Istituto delle Scienze. An astronomical observatory and a physical cabinet were added to the library and laboratory. A staff of five specialists-including an astronomer, experimental physicist, chemist, librarian, and mathematician-was employed; and six departments of studies were formed with one professor in charge of each. The Istituto was unique in having the first university laboratory and was the first to adopt the experimental method of teaching.26

Pope Benedict XIV, a native of Bologna, became interested in the institution and took every opportunity to supplement its services and collections. In 1747 he purchased the contents of the optical workshop of Giuseppe Campani in Rome, donated it to the Istituto, and arranged for a curator to maintain it and to produce optical works for the Isti- tuto. Although the institution prospered during the eighteenth century, its collection of optical equipment and machines was vandalized; little remained by the time that the Istituto was merged with the University in 1803.27 During its lifetime the Istituto competed with the Medici museum as a scientific center for teaching and research.

25 Vincenzo Leoni, Vita degli Arcadi Illustri (Rome, 1710), Part II, pp. 195-254. 26 Ferdinando de Marsigli, Instrumentum Donationum illustrissimi, & excellentis-

simi viri Domini Comitis Aloysii Ferdinandi de Marsiliis favore illustrissimi et excelsi Senatus et Civitatis Bononiae in gratiam novae in eadem Scientiarum Insti- tutionis (Bologna, 1712). For the later history of the Istituto see G. G. Bolletti, Dell'origine e de' progressi dell'Istituto delle Scienze in Bologna (Bologna, 1763).

27Silvio A. Bedini, "The Optical Workshop of Giuseppe Campani," [Yale] Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, XVI (1961), 18-38.



18 Silvio A. Bedini

Other collections of scientific interest were noted in the accounts of seventeenth-century travelers. Among these were the museum at Gies- sen organized by Michele Bernhard Valentini (1657-1729);28 the collection of Caspar Friedrich Einckel of Hamburg, who later wrote under the pseudonym of C. F. Neickelius;29 and the Gottorp Kunstkammer at Gottorp.30

With establishment of important museums on the Continent, it was inevitable that the glowing accounts of the English travelers not only would inspire the founding of similar institutions in England but would also increase interest in the already existing private collections. The nuclei of the English museums which were formed after the middle of the seventeenth century were private collections assembled by travelers and scientists. In general they were guided by individual plans of research or by conformity to specific ideas. In 1649 Charles I "designed Fauxhall as a place of resort for artists, mechanicks, etc., and a depot for models and philosophical apparatus ... [where] . . . experiments and trials of profitable inventions should be carried on." A decade later John Evelyn of Bailliol College at Oxford planned "a Philosophic- Mathematic College" where retired men of learning could continue their studies, and which would have "an elaboratory with a repository for rarities." The poet Abraham Cowley contemplated "a keeper of instruments, engines, etc." to increase the utility of his proposed Philo- sophic College and to be used for weighing, examining, and proving "all things of Nature, delivered to us by former ages [and thereby] recovering the lost inventions and, as it were, drowned lands of the ancients."3'

In 1662 when the Council of the Royal Society considered suitable schemes for "improving Natural Knowledge with the special design of separating superstitution from the truth, A Repository for Instruments and Specimens" was found necessary. Important scientific instruments and "engines" of all types for the examination of the nature of bodies, optical, chemical, mechanical, and others were assembled by Robert Hooke of Christ Church College. An impressive collection of rarities made by a Mr. Hubbard was purchased for the Royal Society at the same time. The collections continued to be enriched by the acquisition of apparatus demonstrated at meetings of the Society and by natural

28 M. B. Valentini, Museum Museorum (Frankfort, 1704 and 1714). 29 C. F. Neickelius, Museographia, ed. D. J. Tanold (Leipzig, 1727). 30 A. Olearius, Gottorfische Kunstkammer (Gottorf, 1674). 81 H. Hoff, Charles I, Patron of Art (London, 1942).




history specimens contributed by the Hudson's Bay Company, Sir Hans Sloane, and others. In 1781 the greater part of the Society's collection was donated to the British Museum, and some materials were presented to the College of Surgeons. The Principal Librarian was unable to find a place for the instruments of science in the National Museum, and they remained in the custody of the Royal Society.82 Such items as survived were subsequently donated to the Science Museum in London and to Oxford University.

A collection which attracted wide interest in seventeenth-century England was assembled by John Tradescant (?-1637) and his son of the same name (1608-62) and exhibited at their home in Lambeth, Lon- don.33 It was acquired in 1659 by Elias Ashmole, who combined it with his own collection and later (1682) donated the combined collection to Oxford, where it became the nucleus of the great Ashmolean Museum. It is reported that "about twelve cart loads of rarities" were moved into the new building designed and constructed for museum purposes in that year. The Ashmolean Museum was installed on the uppermost floor, and a Chymical Librarie and Laboratorie was featured on the first floor.

The museum enjoyed considerable activity during the first few decades of its existence, but a period of stagnation ensued during the eighteenth century There was a revival during the early nineteenth century, but the increase in science teaching at Oxford made the facili- ties inadequate; the collections were dispersed through the Colleges of the University during the late nineteenth century, and the Ashmolean building was used for other purposes. Not until early in the twentieth century, when Dr. Lewis Evans assembled an important collection of sundials and other instruments, was the building turned over for the purpose.

Another great British museum which can trace its origins to the late seventeenth century is the Royal Scottish Museum, which had its beginnings in the private collections of two Edinburgh physicians, Sir Andreas Balfour and Sir Robert Sibbald. Balfour was a noted traveler who visited the European museums and collections of his time and reported on them in a work which has become a basic source on the

82 Nehemiah Grew, Musaeum Regalis Societatis; or, a Catalogue and Description of the natural and artificial rarities belonging to the Royal Society, and preserved at Gresham College (London, 1681, 1686).

3s John Tradescant, Museum Tradescantianum; or Collection of Rarities preserved at South Lambeth, near London (London, 1656); R. T. Gunther, Oxford and the History of Science (London, 1934), pp. 29-36; C. H. Josten, "Elias Ashmole, F.R.S.," Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, XV (July, 1960), 221-30.



20 Silvio A. Bedini

history of museums in the seventeenth century.34 To the Balfour and Sibbald collections were added specimens in considerable numbers, particularly in the field of natural history, in the eighteenth century by Professors Walker and Jameson, and later by Professor Gerard Baldwin Brown. These collections were combined to form the University Mu- seum, which subsequently became the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art. It continued to grow in size and importance, and its name was changed formally to the Royal Scottish Museum in 1904.-,

Meanwhile the science museum was gaining ground elsewhere in seventeenth-century Europe. One of the most significant was the museum established at Copenhagen by the Danish physician Olaf Worm (1588-1654), who was often called the father of prehistoric archeol- ogy.-3 Contemporary with it was the Royal Copenhagen Museum established by King Christian V which featured scientific and mathematical apparatus."3 Another collection of importance was established at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Franz Ernst Briickmann (1697- 1753) of W6lfenbuttel.38 Later, a Dutch merchant named Pieter Teylor van der Hulst established a Stichting, or foundation for scientific research, in 1778 in Haarlem. Martin van Marum (1750-1837) who had already achieved eminence in the fields of chemistry and electricity, became its first director. Some of his experimental apparatus, notably his electrical machine, has survived in the collection; and a wide variety of other physical and scientific instruments and apparatus were added through the years. Although never in the forefront of science museums, the Teyler foundation has existed for almost two centuries and pre- serves a significant science collection.3"

The end of the eighteenth century witnessed the beginning of one of the greatest study collections ever assembled, which has survived to the present time as the Conservatoire National des Arts et M6tiers. Originally designed to serve as a school for the study of the applied

84 J. Walker, "Memoirs of Sir Andreas Balfour," Essays on Natural History (London, 1812), pp. 364-65.

as David Murray, Museums, Their History and Their Use (Glasgow, 1904), I, 153, 217.

a8 George Seger, Synopsis methodica rariorum . . . in Musaeo Olai Wormii (Haf- niae, 1653); Museum Wormianum (London, 1655).

87 Oligerus Jacobaeus, Musaeum regium, seu catalogus rerum tam naturalium, quam artificialium, quae in Basilica bibliothecae ... Christiani V (Hafniae, 1696).

38 Franz Ernst Briickmann, Epistolae itinerariae (W61fenbuttel, 1742), pp. 39-47, 57-60, 81-84.

89 Elize van der Ven, Origines et but de la Fondation Teyler et de son Cabinet de physique (Haarlem, 1882).




arts and sciences when it was first organized by order of the National Convention in 1794, it acquired the collection of machines and mechanical models assembled by the great technologist Jacques Vaucanson (1709-82); and in 1814 it was supplemented by a large collection of scientific instruments and apparatus. In 1866 the models and other machines and instruments of the Academie Royale des Sciences was added to the Conservatoire, and the resulting collection became a unique reference collection for specialists.40

With the establishment of important scientific museums in England and Europe, it was inevitable that a number of so-called museums would be organized in the American colonies. Almost invariably these consisted of small collections of natural history specimens not specifically organized for either study or public display; they did not serve any research purpose.

The earliest attempts to form a museum of science in the accepted sense occurred in Philadelphia, where numerous cabinets of curiosities existed prior to the end of the Revolution. Among the pioneers was Samuel Vaughan, the English Whig,41 the Library Company of Phila- delphia,42 which assembled natural history specimens and scientific apparatus, and the American Academy, which made a brief but unsuccessful effort to establish a museum.43

A more important attempt to organize a museum was made by the American Philosophical Society, and a substantial number of the scientific instruments and mechanical models from this early collection have survived to the present. Another learned group called the American Society was established in Philadelphia in 1766 for the promotion of inventions, and some of the models submitted to it were preserved in a "Cabinet." In 1768 the American Society merged with the American Philosophical Society, and the "Cabinet" was maintained by the new

40 Arthur Jules Morin, Catalogue des Collections de le Conservatoire des Arts et Mitiers (Paris, 1852).

41 Catherine Van Courtlandt Mathews, Andrew Ellicott, His Life and Letters (New York, 1908), pp. 52-53. He brought to America what Andrew Ellicott described as "the best Philosophicall Aperatus in the United States and a great variety of Petrifactious Fossils."

42 Shares in the company were exchanged for desirable acquisitions. In 1738 John Penn presented the company with a costly air pump brought from England; gifts received from others before 1749 included a pair of 16-inch globes, a telescope, and an electrical machine. See Austin K. Gray, Benjamin Franklin's Library (New York, 1936).

43 Brooke Hindle, "The Rise of the American Philosophical Society, 1766-1787" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1949), pp. 31-42.



22 Silvio A. Bedini

organization, with three curators appointed to supervise it. The "Cabi- net" dispensed with antiquities and particularly emphasized scientific apparatus used in research by members of the Society, a practice which continued until 1840. Since no museum of natural history existed during this period, the Society became the unwilling repository for natural curiosities as well, but in the nineteenth century these were transferred to the Academy of Natural Sciences.44

Philadelphia appeared to provide a natural climate for museums, and numerous other attempts were made to establish them.45 Another important American institution that made some attempt to collect and preserve artifacts of science and technology was the museum established by Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) in 1784. Perhaps most famous of early American museums, it was primarily devoted to natural history.46

Another museum enterprise of the same period which is relatively unknown to the present time was a museum of technology established in Philadelphia in about 1787 or 1788 by Robert Leslie, a watch and clockmaker. Leslie's interest in technology was first announced in a newspaper advertisement in 1788 in which he suggested that "any gen- tlemen wanting small Machines or Modles, either for trying philosophical or mechanical Experiments may have them executed according to their particular Directions, by applying to said Leslie."47 An editorial

44 Robert P. Multhauf, Catalogue of Instruments and Models in the Possession of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia, 1961).

45 William J. Potts, "Du Simitiere, Artist, Antiquary, and Naturalist, Projector of the First American Museum," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XIII (1889), 351. In 1774 Dr. Abraham Chovet assembled a wax museum of anatomical specimens which could be viewed by the public upon payment of admission, and in 1782 the American Museum was opened to the public by Pierre Eugene du Simi- tiere. This was devoted exclusively to natural history and terminated with the founder's death in 1784.

46 Oliver Jensen, "The Peales," American Heritage, VI (April, 1955), 100-101; Charles Willson Peale, Discourse on the Science of Nature (Philadelphia, 1880); Also Charles Willson Peale and A. N. F. J. Beauvois, A Catalogue of Peale's Museum, (Philadelphia, 1796). Peale delivered lectures on natural history, his daughter played an organ, his sons individually lectured, and special exhibits were featured from time to time. Occasional "moving pictures" which he showed were in actuality a mechanical device presented by Peale. Several operating models of machines were exhibited, and in one room a slave boy named Moses operated "Hawkins' ingenious Physiognotrace" which drew profiles of visitors.

47 Robert Leslie was associated with Thomas Jefferson in various enterprises, and he was the maker of the famous two-faced clock at Monticello. He also invented several important developments for watches for which he received a patent from




comment on a communication from Great Britain regarding machines for manufacturing in a Philadelphia newspaper in May, 1789,48 noted that

... at this crisis, it will be a great public satisfaction to hear that the ingenious Mr. Robert Leslie, a native of Maryland, has com- menced a MUSEUM in Philadelphia, for the purpose of collecting every model, drawing or description of any machine, implement or tool which is employed in any foreign countries in manufactures or the useful arts. Mr. Leslie has been some years a member of the respectful company of watch and clockmakers in this city, and has given several proofs of dexterity and skill in that curious business of MECHANISM.

The next public mention of the project described the "Proposals by Robert Leslie for establishing a Museum in the City of Philadelphia." The museum was to feature a collection of operating models of the various machines used in agriculture and manufacturing as well as in other branches of the useful arts. They were to be complete and rep- resent in miniature the original machines and to perform all their move- ments. The models were to provide an opportunity for investigating the comparative merits of a large number of machines simultaneously, which hopefully might result in effecting great improvements in machines currently in use.49

Leslie's museum was opened to the public in the following spring with apparent success, and an early exhibit was of an operating model of Oliver Evans' flour mill. The enterprise was quite successful until the beginning of 1793, when Leslie moved his family to England.5o Although short-lived, the Leslie Museum was the earliest American attempt to establish a museum of science and technology.

A counterpart of this project was the Gardner Baker Museum and Waxwork in New York,51 initiated in 1792, and which subsequently became the Tammany Museum. Baker featured new inventions from

the State at Large of Pennsylvania in 1789 and from the British government ca. 1795. See Silvio A. Bedini, "Thomas Jefferson, Clock Designer," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, No. 108, part 3 (June 28, 1964); Pennsylvania Packet, August 27, 1788, p. 3, col. 3.

48 Pennsylvania Packet, May 28, 1789, p. 3, col. 2. 49 Ibid., June 23, 1789, p. 3, col. 3.

so Ibid., November 6, 1790, p. 3, col. 1; Greville and Dorothy Bathe, Oliver Evans (Philadelphia, 1935), pp. 28-30, 40-42, 50-53, 294; Dunlap's Advertiser, April 15, 1793, Supplement, p. 2, col. 1.

51 The Diary, or Loudon's Register, February 16, 1792.



24 Silvio A. Bedini

time to time, including an automatic air gun which fired 20 times without recharging, invented by a young man from Rhode Island in 1792, and the American patent steam jack of Joseph Pearsall in the following year.52 The Tammany Museum was continued after Baker's death in 1799 by his widow, but it eventually returned to its original status of a waxworks.

The growing preoccupation with scientific collections in the United States paralleled the interest which existed in Europe and which pre- pared the stage for the establishment of museums devoted exclusively to science and technology. This was accomplished first with the expan- sion of several of the earlier collections of artificial rarities in Europe during the nineteenth century. The Landesmuseum at Kassel and the Mathematisch-Physikalische Salon of the Zwinger Museum as Dresden not only survived the passage of time but also became firmly established as the earliest of the science museums. In France the Conservatoire Na- tional des Arts et Metiers developed from a school of applied arts and sciences into a museum with the acquisition of important collections of scientific instruments, models, and machines during the nineteenth century. At the same time the Teyler Stichting in Holland survived the long periods of neglect and formed the nucleus for the addition of other collections.

The most important event in the development of the science museums in the nineteenth century was a proposal made by the Prince Con- sort of England for the establishment of a science museum in London, inspired by the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1857 the South Kensington Museum was organized, and in 1876 a Special Loan Exhibition of scientific apparatus was assembled. Much of the loaned material was acquired permanently by the South Kensington Museum and led to the formation of the present Science Museum in South Kensington, which was so named in 1909. Meanwhile, the South Kensington Museum had formally become the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1899.

With the tradition of these institutions well established, it was inevitable that other museums of science and technology would come into being in the twentieth century. In 1903 the great Deutsches Mu- seum was organized in Munich, followed by the opening of the Tech- nisches Museum fiir Industrie und Gewerbe in Vienna in 1918, formed by the combination of other small museums, after almost half a century of planning. In 1931 the Rijksmuseum voor de Geschiedenis der Natuur-

52 Weekly Museum, December 21, 1793; The Columbian Gazeteer, February 3, 1794; The Columbian Gazeteer, March 31, 1794; The [New York] Herald, March 18, 1795; The Argus, January 11, 1796.




wetenschappen was opened in Leiden, followed by the completion of the Tekniska Museet in Stockholm and by the organization of the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica in Milan in 1949.

In a review of science museums through the five centuries of their development, it is possible to discern the development of a museum science, relating to methods of preservation of specimens, classification and exhibition, and museum architecture. Little can be recovered about preservation and restoration methods employed in private collections and science museums prior to the nineteenth century. As far as can be determined from contemporary accounts, preservation was a matter of little concern and of no preoccupation with the owners of museum collections. Only in most recent times has the subject been recognized for its importance and have careful studies been assembled for the guid- ance of museum technicians.

Classification of specimens developed with the gradual shift in emphasis from the "curio" or object having magical or supernatural powers or prized for its precious content only, to specimens that illustrated the works of nature or provided evidence of human skill. This shift was directly influenced by the advent of "the compleat man" of the Renaissance with his wide mental horizon that embraced an appreciation of the works of nature and of man.

The earliest efforts at museum classification were attempted with natural curiosities, which were subdivided into the three categories of animal, vegetable, and mineral. The continued popularity of natural curiosities was not overshadowed by the interest in artificial curiosities at first, and a direct line of evolution can be traced from the specialized collections of rocks and minerals, petrifactions and fossils, botanical specimens, and examples of animal life to the formation of the natural history museum as it is known today.

Primary classification became standard practice with natural curiosities. In the Aldrovandi museum, the specimens were presented according to species."3 The plan employed began with the skeleton of homo sapiens, followed by those of animals, and proceeded to plants and minerals in fairly articulated subdivisions. The presentation displayed a reasonable amount of coherence and wholeness as represented in the table of contents of the catalogue of the Museo Cospiano.54

A similar arrangement, although perhaps not quite as formalized, was employed at the Museum Wormianum at Copenhagen. The basic classi-

53 See n. 10. 54 Cremonese, op. cit. (see n. 11).



26 Silvio A. Bedini

fication for exhibition was separated into subdivisions of the usual mineral, vegetable, and animal, or other. The walls of the museum were lined with three continuous shelves, and specimens were arranged according to category. On the floor and on the two lower shelves were placed boxes and trays containing smaller objects beginning with earths and salts and proceeding in order through the mineral, vegetable, and animal categories and ending with parts of animals. Freaks and oddities were hung between and among the trays and from the shelves. Statuary, antiquities, petrifactions, stuffed birds, and miscellaneous specimens were placed on the highest shelf. The upper parts of the walls were covered with stuffed tortoises, crocodiles, lizards, skeletons, and arms and armor. Suspended from the ceiling were the stuffed bodies of a large polar bear, a shark, and various fishes and birds, as well as an Eskimo kayak.

Artificial curiosities finally achieved such popularity that the early museologists eventually separated them completely from natural history specimens. These artificial curiosities were thereupon classified according to raw materials, in accordance with Pliny's categories in his Natural History. This became a fairly standard framework for the science collections of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as in the Green Vaults of the Elector Augustus of Saxony.

Aldrovandi utilized the same classification by materials, but he went a step further and exhibited them in both their natural and manufactured state. Minerals, such as iron ores, might be displayed in relation to arms and armor or locks and keys. In the Cospi collection, which was later joined to it, the cose artificiose formed a continuation of the man-animal-vegetable-mineral classifications. Categories were subdivided and the divisions were divided further, as in the Cospi classification of "instruments (-of mathematics, -of astronomy, -of geometry, -of music, and -of war)-vases (arranged according to raw materials)- ancient sarcophagi-medals-idols-etc."

Perhaps more than any other, the Museo Kircheriano exemplified the accepted seventeenth-century museum practices. First of all, Kircher utilized a feature which was considered to be particularly desirable by seventeenth-century museologists. This consisted of exhibiting several conspicuous specimens at the entrance of the museum to attract the visitor's eye. Recommended were a crocodile, a stuffed bear, tiger, or lion, a dried whale, or a similar object which was designed to impress the public by means of its "splendour, venerable character or ferocious looks."5 Kircher selected a mummy as his main attraction for the en-

55 Bonanni, op. cit. (see n. 22).




trance to the museum. He departed somewhat in the arrangement of specimens from the customary categorization and employed instead the principle of "all things and some more," in which the most incongruous objects were placed beside each other. He was undoubtedly inspired by the title of one of his own published works, De omnibus rebus et de quibusdam aliis,5" and the result was not only kaleidoscopic by the very variety of the exhibits but startling and memorable. A better con- cept of his plan of organization may be derived from the table of contents of the catalogue of the museum which was published in 1709. The three major parts were subdivided into classes with the following sequence:

Idola et Instrumenta ad Sacrificia-Anathemata-Sepulchra-Frag- menta Eruditae Antiquitatis (stilli, anulli, sigillae, . . . numisma . . .)-Lapides, Fossilia, aliasque glebas Apparatum habet Rerum Peregrinarum-Plantae Marinae, Animalia Marina ... Plantae Ter- restria, Animalia Terrestria-Instrumenta Mathematica-Tabula pictae ... Signa marmorea, Numismata ... , etc.

These classification standards persisted into the eighteenth century. Neickelius advocated the presentation of museum specimens "in a learned manner" and summarized the classification customarily employed before his time. He suggested that natural and artificial curiosities should be displayed separately in the museum gallery. Naturalia should begin on one side of the room and range from human anatomy, skeletons, and mummies and proceed through the quadrupeds, fishes, and minerals. Artificial curiosities were to be exhibited according to materials on the opposite side of the room, and at the narrow end of the room the two displays should be joined by cabinets for coins with portraits suitably arranged over them. Stuffed animals were to be hung from the ceiling. In spite of his emphasis on definitive classification of the displays, Neickelius was nevertheless an advocate of the utilization of all available space as in a storeroom. Since the center of the gallery was left free, he suggested that the space should not be wasted, and that it could best be utilized by installing a table with reference works.57

Similar plans for classification were employed in almost all of the collections into the eighteenth century. Without exception they evi- denced a determination to exhibit every specimen owned in each collection, and duplication was considered to be an indication of the rich- ness of the collection.

The third aspect of the science of museology, namely, museum ar-

68 Athanasius Kircher, S. J., De omnibus rebus et de quibusdam aliis (Rome, 1674).

57 C. F. Neickelius, Museographia, op. cit.



28 Silvio A. Bedini

chitecture, remained almost totally unconsidered until recent times. Whereas Cosimo de' Medici had a special "Galleria delle Statue" built by Giorgio Vasari for the display of sculptures, and special chambers were designed for the exhibition of paintings in the major French, Ger- man, and Italian repositories of art in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, no special provision was made for collections of artificial curiosities and scientific objects. Jean de Berry, Rudolph II, the Prince of Gottorp, the Landgrave of Hesse, and Elector Augustus of Saxony displayed their collections in existing chambers of their palaces and castles reserved for this purpose. The great collection of the Medici princes at Florence was displayed in glazed cabinets or "closets" in rooms set aside in the palace. The Galleria Settala in Milan was displayed in long galleries of the family palace, while the Museo Kircheriano was housed in existing rooms of the Collegio Romano and overflowed into the small enclosed garden and filled the corridors as well. To note just another example, Monsignor Ciampini exhibited his museum in his own palace in Rome, and objects were placed wherever space permitted.

The first true example of museum architecture designed specifically for the requirements of a science museum was a building planned but never constructed for a College of Science in London by Sir Christo- pher Wren. The plan of this building was incorporated, if not by Wren himself at least by others, in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, which was completed in 1682. This was unquestionably the earliest example of special architecture for housing a science museum. The next example did not come into being until the late eighteenth century, with the Teyler Stichting in Haarlem.

Science museums, as well as museum science, progressed slowly through the centuries from their haphazard beginnings until they achieved full status in the second half of the nineteenth century. Fol- lowing more than a century of growth, the cabinets of curiosities achieved the status of true science museums in the second half of the seventeenth century, particularly in Italy. With the museums of the Medici, Settala, Kircher, Ciampini, and Marsigli, in particular the museum of science attained its maximum usefulness. It not only served the basic functions of the preservation and exhibition of science objects for the public, but it also became a research center for scholars and scientists. This combined usefulness was achieved also by the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford in the same period. The science museum as an institution then went into a period of decline from which it recovered




briefly during the last decades of the eighteenth century and resumed a new period of progress in the second half of the nineteenth century.

There can be no doubt that the seventeenth-century scientific research centers which flourished as a part of and result of scientific collections played a most significant role in the scientific ferment of that most fruitful period in the history of science. This was probably because the collections were assembled, maintained, and studied primarily by scholars instead of by wealthy amateurs.

Not until the nineteenth century has the same scientific clime prevailed again throughout the world, and once more the museum of science began the fulfilment of its designated role in the increase and diffusion of knowledge. Its future can best be summarized in the words of Linnaeus58 who stated:

We are but on the borderland of knowledge; much remains hid- den, reserved for far-off generations, who will prosecute the examination of their Creator's work in remote countries, and make many discoveries for the pleasure and convenience of life. Pos- terity will see its increasing museums and the knowledge of divine wisdom flourish together; and at the same time antiquities and history, the natural sciences and practical sciences of the manual arts will be enriched.59

58 C. Linnaeus, op. cit., "Preface" in translation in James Edward Smith's Reflec- tions on the Study of Nature (see n. 1).

59 The writer gratefully acknowledges the invaluable advice and suggestions of Miss Deborah J. Mills, Department of Science and Technology, Smithsonian Insti- tution.



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The Evolution of Science Museums

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