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Armillary Sphere in Top Gallery History of Science Museum Oxford

Welcome to the History of Science Museum

Explore 600 years of Islamic Metalwork — and discover the Heartbeat of the City

Discover. Connect. Inspire.

Explore the history of science through our objects, their inventors — and the stories of how they changed the world.

Discover ingenious objects

Events: Inspiration for curious minds - join us live

From Board Games and Medieval Medicine to family fun with a handbag: discover free online talks this autumn with stimulating discussion — and some hands-on festive crafting.

Exhibitions Courtauld & Heartbeat of the City 1800 x 840 px

From 600 years of Islamic Metalwork to the Heartbeat of the City

From stunning Islamic Metalwork to tales of personal time and an award-winning trip to Typhoidland, join us in the Museum. Relax — and be inspired.

Explore the Collections Databases

Browse over 20,000 records in our Objects Database, and search our Library and Manuscript catalogues. Plus access to bespoke catalogues for Astrolabes, Marconi, and Epact.

Exhibition: Precious and Rare: Islamic Metalwork from The Courtauld - Cultures in Conversation

From stunning court fashion and intricate astrolabes to beautiful bowls and candlesticks, discover how the technical skills of Islamic artisans stimulated cultural conversations through the ebb and flow of people, goods, and ideas.

Heartbeat of the City watches display (9) 1800 x 840 px

Exhibition: Heartbeat of the CIty

Take a minute to go inside out with us this winter.

Outside, interact with clock sculpture which draws on your footsteps to beat out the rhythm of our city.

Inside, discover historical timepieces spanning centuries, each one with a story to tell of human ingenuity and engineering expertise.

Photo Oxford 2020 Women in Photography Exhibition Banner 1800 x 840 px

Online Exhibition: Women and Photography

Discover Oxford's rich history of talented, pioneering women photographers.

37148 Astrolabe with lunar mansions (Back detail) 1800 x 840 px

Object of the Month

Combining Indian and Bedouin traditions, the 'lunar mansions' — groups of stars through which the moon moves — are engraved in an inner circle on this exceptionally detailed astrolabe featured in our Islamic Metalwork exhibition.

Object of the Week

In Islamic art, the iconography of the constellations is borrowed from Classical Antiquity. The star positions on this globe were taken from the Book of Constellations by Abu al-Husayn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, who modelled his star charts on those of Greek astronomer Ptolemy.

Visitor's Choice

This beautiful Astrolabe was chosen by our friend Megan (@WritersGreenHse) who often drops in for inspiration when writing in town.

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Meet Stephen, your Pocket Curator

You can carry around our Curator, Stephen, on your phone or tablet.

Download the app, put your headphones on and discover the human stories behind seven objects.

Take the 2-Minute Tour

Fancy a 2-Minute Museum visit?

Take the Virtual Grand Tour: see each of our Galleries, have a mosey around the staircase and leap all 3 floors in a single click!

Be inspired

Symposium free online - Precious and Rare: Islamic Metalwork from The Courtauld

Join The Courtauld team live as they go behind the scenes of their UK touring exhibition Precious and Rare: Islamic Metalwork from The Courtauld.

Christmas Light Festival 2020 1800 x 840 px

How a handbag brings us together

Find out how Multaka volunteers are teaming up with the History of Science Museum to create our first ever live-streamed, festival family event.

Free online talk: Board Games and Medieval Medicine

Join Daniel Burt from Oxford's Faculty of Oriental Studies for a fascinating insight into the Board Games and Medieval Medicine Project. Find out what games were made and played in medieval times, and discover how games are created — and used to engage the general public with academic research.

Knowledge in motion online lecture series Is Science Exact? (1) 1800 x 840 px

Free online talk: Is ‘Science’ Always Exact?

What can we call a science? And what makes it science? Dr Taha Yasin Arslan from Medeniyet University, Istanbul challenges us to rethink the history of science, proposing new definitions for the term “science”.

Rings of Heaven talk: First image astronomers are conducting observations using a 5 3 metre armillary sphere in the late 16th century Istanbul observatory

Coming soon - video playback

Free online talk: Rings of Heaven

Dr Taha Yasin Arslan from Medeniyet University, Istanbul examines the evolution of instruments for observation and calculation in the Islamic world from the 800s to 1500s CE.

Event Arabic books Professor Bray 1800 x 840 px

Coming soon - video playback

Free online talk: Arabic Books and Astronomy in Seventeenth-Century Oxford

Professor Julia Bray of Oxford's Faculty of Oriental Studies takes us behind the scenes of a pilot project to photograph and document seventeenth-century Oxford astronomers’ annotations in Arabic books and manuscripts in the Bodleian and St John’s College Libraries.

Coming soon - video playback

Family Fun free online: Oxford's Christmas Light Festival

Join the Multaka team for Art, Music, and Craft: The Mosul Handbag — a jam-packed hour of fun family craft and activities—and learn about what may be the oldest handbag in the world!

Award-winng Multaka-Oxford

We're so proud of our friends and colleagues in the Multaka-Oxford team: 2020 winners of the Vice-Chancellor's Diversity Award for Diversifying Participation at the University of Oxford.

Online Galleries: Astrolabes of Africa

North Africa has a long tradition of making beautiful, ingenious astrolabes.

10 Astrolabes — 3 Pioneers — 1 Exhibition.

Watch the full series

Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Join our experts as they put a selection of our working scientific instruments through their paces. It's rare we have a chance to handle these objects, so we hope you enjoy seeing them come to life as much as we did.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AaWuJHQL-bQ

Connect with your Museum

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Supporting your Museum

As a registered charity, we make our Collections freely available for everyone to enjoy and offer a wide range of activities for our communities.

Thanks to your generosity — last year our visitors contributed £41,000 in donations — we have been able to support the Museum’s Collections and continue public events and education programmes.

That is why we continue to rely on visitors just like you to support us.

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Volunteering

We are very grateful to all our volunteers who help make our Museum and its Collections more welcoming, interesting, and open to all. Would you like to join them?

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Inspiration in your inbox

Stay in touch with the latest stories, events, learning resources and Museum news.

Browse products from our shop

Visit the online shop

Book: Director's Choice

£9.95

Periodic Table Collection

From books and mugs to tea towels and tags: everything you need to explore the Periodic Table.

Sundial Magnet

£3

Home

Welcome to the History of Science Museum

Discover. Connect. Inspire.

Explore the history of science through our objects, their inventors — and the stories of how they changed the world.

Discover ingenious objects

Events: Inspiration for curious minds - join us live