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Beginning the Process of Decolonising the History of Science Museum’s Collection

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Rhiannon Jones, Head of Public Engagement and Programmes at HSM, introduces a new blog series from Art History student Camille Leadbeater, which will focus on decolonising the HSM Collection.  

On visiting the History of Science Museum I was struck by many things – the beautiful historic building, the extraordinarily rich and fascinating collection, and also a painting that hangs at the very top of the Museum.  

Immediately, the younger figure in this painting jumped out at me — a young black boy with a silver collar around his neck and what appears to be a tear on his cheek. 

When I read the label next to the painting, it makes no reference to this young boy.

Instead it talks about the white man next to him, Sir John Chardin, (1643–1713), who I presumed must be a famous scientist but is in fact a jeweller and travel writer.  

When I came to interview for my role in late 2019, I felt compelled to raise this painting and its place within the Museum. My nieces’ father is from Uganda, the eldest is four years old and if they were to come and visit me in my place of work how could I explain this painting to them? The only black person they would see would be what appears to be a slave; what kind of message would this send to them about their role in STEM?  

I was nervous, but suggested the painting’s removal in my interview and the panel challenged me to offer other solutions. As well as changing the interpretation on the label, I suggested having a similar-sized portrait of a modern scientist, such as Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, an inspiring black female scientist; even if the interpretation were changed my nieces would not yet be able to read that and it would be much more powerful to have a visual counterpoint.  

At the time I did not know how these suggestions were received, but I have since been told that it actually helped me in securing the role and that the Museum had already been discussing this painting. 

Since joining the Museum in December 2019, I have been passionate about starting a project around this painting to discuss its reinterpretation and its place in the Museum.

When I heard that an Art History student from Oxford had chosen to focus on this painting for her Object Essay, I was delighted. Camille Leadbeater has done brilliant work exploring the cultural and historical contexts surrounding this painting and seeking to answer the question of who this boy could be, foregrounding his story. She has brought her own story to bear on this, as a young black person, and has rightly challenged the Museum on the display of this painting.   

At HSM, we believe that museums have a responsibility to our communities and our shared history — we stand with Black Lives Matter. We acknowledge that Museums are not neutral spaces and we have much work to do in order to tackle structures of racial inequality.  

It has been heartening to see how the HSM Team has got behind this project. Now our Top Gallery is open again, we’re sharing this story with our visitors, showing how we are working to reinterpret this painting as part of our commitment to decolonise the HSM collection, and asking for their thoughts and feedback.

With this blog series, we want to start this important conversation about our collection with all of you.

I hope you will follow Camille’s journey of discovery and share your own thoughts with us.  

We would love you to:

Rhiannon Jones is Head of Public Engagement and Programmes at the History of Science Museum 

Other posts in this series:

Beginning the Process of Decolonising the History of Science Museum’s Collection

First Impressions of the Portrait of Sir John Chardin

‘Women and Science’ Series – How Einstein’s theory of gravity is helping me see the world

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Dr Hayley Macpherson in Sesto, 2018

I never wanted to travel much for work. Now I’m sitting in a trendy café in Stockholm writing about how I got here. The idea of travelling all the time turned me away from a potential career as a pilot because I didn’t like the idea of living out of a suitcase. Eventually I landed in an undergraduate science degree, saw the list of elective units and thought “huh, Astronomy. That sounds cool.” Fast forward 8 years and I now fill out forms with my occupation as “Astrophysicist”. Something I didn’t know was that travel is a big part of the job.

I basically make fake Universes. I study how the largest clusters of galaxies formed over the entire history of the Universe using a supercomputer (which is literally just a really big, powerful version of what you’re using to read this right now). But really, I just write computer code and do a lot of maths. That doesn’t sound as cool, though. 

The thing is, most people use the wrong theory of gravity to do this. Well, it’s not “wrong”, it just might not be the best one to use. Most people use Newton’s original apple-on-the-head theory of gravity, which says that objects with mass are drawn together by some invisible force. This was the first real explanation for why we don’t all fly off into space. Then Einstein came along and thought: “Actually, it’s because space is curved in such a way that makes things move towards each other”. Objects like the Sun are essentially sitting on top of a kind of fabric and bending it, making smaller objects move on curved paths around them. So, our idea of a “straight” line isn’t always “straight” anymore. You can visualise this by taking a trampoline and sitting in the middle of it. When you bend the trampoline, an apple that was sitting nearby on the trampoline will start to move towards you. This is why we don’t float off into space, because the Earth bends space just like the trampoline (and we’re the apple). Say your friend rolled an apple across the trampoline instead. Its path would curve as it moved past you. This is why we orbit the Sun.

Turns out we can use Einstein’s theory to describe the motion of everything from apples to galaxies. Newton’s theory works pretty well for apples, but it starts to break down as we try to describe bigger things. I’m trying to figure out when we need to use Einstein’s theory instead, and whether this makes any difference to how our Universe looks. 

Dr Macpherson travelling in Amsterdam.

I never thought I would be where I am today. Not Stockholm, but in my career. I love my job. Especially the work trips. I’ve seen some amazing places and always learnt something or met someone new along the way. I guess the reason I didn’t want to be a pilot was… I didn’t want to be a pilot.

I remember clearly the day of my last maths exam in high school, being so excited that I would “never have to do maths again”. Well, a message to my past self: Sorry… but not really. I guess when you find something you really love doing, you can sit back, relax, and watch a movie rather than having the lives of hundreds in your hands. 

Dr Hayley Macpherson is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cambridge. She is interested in the evolution of the entire Universe over all of time, but specifically which theory of gravity best describes this process. She studies this using numerical simulations on huge supercomputers, but also gets to travel a lot, too.

Happy Christmas from Dr Silke Ackermann, the Museum’s Director

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Dr Silke Ackermann, Director

What a year this has been! We started it off in style with our brand-new logo, the swirling colourful interpretation of an astrolabe that draws in both those who recognise what it represents and those for whom it is simply attractive. The change in name may sound like a small step for humanity, but is the outcome of a huge leap for us in articulating clearly what we are about: a museum of history that talks with equal confidence about mathematics, religion and art through the stories told by some of the most intriguing and stunning objects ever made. Our equally new website is sleek, stylish – and much used.

We want to be a meeting place of cultures and history, and no project illustrates this better than our multi-award winning Multaka-Oxford, culminating in the stunning Moonlight event in November that attracted over 1,100 people. We also want to be a place of discussion and we want to encourage debate, and Tomorrow’s Oxford Heads did so spectacularly. 

It has been the year when our new handrail, every bit lovingly made on site over the course of 18 months, has finally been completed and officially ‘opened’ – the first step in making our 17th century home accessible to all. 

Aric Barcena from the University’s Estates Service cutting the ceremonial ribbon, watched by Museum staff and David from Cobalt Blacksmiths

And it has been the year when we fully adopted the mindset of ‘the museum as a business’, a mindset that underpins that in the current day and age the Museum needs to operate like a business with a strong commercial performance that supports and enables many of the successes that we are very proud to share in our latest Annual Review.

So what topic could have been more appropriate for our special display in the Basement Gallery than the 60th anniversary of Oxford Instruments, the University’s first spin out company and still one of its most successful? If you ever had an MRI scan then you, like so many others, have experienced the mind-boggling achievements of Oxford Instruments, founded by two extraordinary people, Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood.

People | Science | Business celebrates the unique blend of innovation, business acumen and the amazing team that is at the heart of this company and we hope that you will have an opportunity to see the display before it closes on 1 March 2020.

People | Science | Business : Celebrating 60 Years of Oxford Instruments display in the Basement Gallery

This year we have pushed the boundaries beyond anything our bijou Museum was believed to be capable of – and we are determined that this is only the beginning. Going forward we will focus on Vision 2024, the ambitious strategy for our first centenary that aims to revolutionise HSM – and right now there is no stopping the amazing ideas that my team are coming up with. Watch this space (literally)!

So we end the year as we have started it: in colour, with the new uniforms mirroring all the colours (and more) represented in our new logo. But what did you do with the old uniforms? I hear you ask. The Turl Street Homeless Action (TSHA) is a student run organisation that does excellent work helping Oxford’s homeless community.  Volunteers go around the city centre every night providing food, drink and warm clothing to those in need.  We are really pleased at the Museum to have been able to support this local organisation by donating fleeces previously worn by our front of house staff, now put to a new use.

Museum Staff and Volunteers

My team and I wholeheartedly thank you for your support throughout the past 12 months and we wish you a happy, healthy – and colourful 2020!

Dr Silke Ackermann, Director