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Armillary Sphere in the Top Gallery, History of Science Museum, University of Oxford

Welcome

We're open Tuesday-Sunday, 12-5pm

Last admission: 4.45pm

Free entry. Donations welcome.

Alice's Day 2022 - Join us for an adventure ...

Family event: Alice's Day 2022

Join us at the History of Science Museum on Alice's Day for storytelling, selfies inspired by a Queen — and a Wonderland Trail.

Join us on an adventure ...

Making Waves display, Basement Gallery, History of Science Museum, Oxford

Display: Making Waves - Marconi's Radio Revolution

Guglielmo Marconi had a simple vision — to connect the world through wireless technology.

Discover how Marconi's hands-on experiments explored the unseen world of radio waves — and changed forever the way our world stays connected.

Explore Making Waves

45747 Astrolabe by Muhammad Muqim al Yazdi, Persian 1647/8

Online Gallery: Mirror of the Stars

Join our curators Dr Federica Gigante and Mathilde Daussy-Renaudin to explore how astrolabes mirrored the traditional view of the Earth at the centre of our moving universe.

Explore the Mirror of the Stars

multakaeventatmuseumofhistoryofsciencebyianwallman 1018

Award-winning MultakaOxford team supported by funding from Alwaleed Philanthropies

Now funded by a generous donation from Alwaleed Philanthropies, the award-winning MultakaOxford team brings the rich, diverse knowledge of people settling in Oxford — many through forced migration — to the History of Science Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum.

Meet the MultakaOxford team

Collecting COVID

Discover how the History of Science Museum and the Bodleian Libraries are joining forces to collect stories of the COVID-19 pandemic — and the extraordinary responses to this global challenge across Oxford University.

Explore Collecting COVID

Exhibition: The Art of Science

You're looking at a single nanoparticle of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, one million times its actual size, sculpted in glass.

This stunning artwork celebrates the remarkable story of the Oxford University researchers who developed the vaccine.

Be part of history in the making

Virtual Tour: Alice in Typhoidland

Glide with us on a murky ride into Oxford's underside ...

Take a virtual tour of the Alice in Typhoidland exhibition at the History of Science Museum and Weston Library.

Tour Alice in Typhoidland

Take the 2-minute Tour

Fancy a preview before you visit?

Take the Virtual Grand Tour: take a peak into each Gallery, have a mosey around the stories on the stairs, and leap all 3 floors in a single click!

Take the 2-minute Tour

Armillary Sphere (70229) in the Top Gallery, History of Science Museum, University of Oxford (Photo by Ian Wallman)

Discovery starts here

Collections Online put our objects and archives at your fingertips in one, easy-to-use search dashboard.

Start your search

Collecting COVID - Knitted dolls & viruses

Blog: Balancing the many voices of the pandemic

Our enthusiasm to record the living history of the pandemic must be guided by thoughtful, ethical practices.

So how do we celebrate medical successes while acknowledging the disappointed — or even angry — voices?

Tina Eyre — Curator for Collecting COVID at the History of Science Museum — shares her thoughts on the ethics of Contemporary Collecting.

Take a 10-minute Read

'Thank you’ poster sent to the Jenner Institute for their work on the Oxford-AstraZeneca SARS-CoV-1 Vaccine

Blog: Making Science the Hero

Tina Eyre, Curator of the Collecting COVID project at the History of Science Museum, shares contributions from women and girls to the COVID-19 pandemic response

Have a 10-minute read

Vaccine Trials - In Science and Art with Fran Monks (Zoom portraits of vaccine trial volunteers)

Interview: Vaccine Trials in Science and Art

Portrait artist and photographer Fran Monks sat down over Zoom with our very own Izzy Treyvaud to explore photography as a gateway to celebrating the extraordinary stories of 'ordinary' people.

Read the interview

Video: The Zodiac - Science or Superstition?

Join Helen and Mathilde on Zoom to explore the Zodiac through some amazing Museum objects.

Watch the video

“Sir Henry Acland & Mr. M. W. Haffkine” taken by Sarah Angelina Acland (digital positive from half-plate negative, 1899) Bodleian Library, Minn Collection Negative 202/9

Blog: Epidemic Encounters

Discover the story of Waldemar Haffkine, the "vaccine pioneer the world forgot", and his 35-year friendship with groundbreaking photographer Sarah Acland

Read the blog

Young boy in the portrait with Sir John Chardin (Inv: 72661) 1800 x 840 px

Blog: Reframing the "Chardin" portrait

Camille Leadbetter investigates the "Chardin" portrait, and shares her quest to bring the story of the young boy — and thousands like him — into the foreground

Read on

Visitors browsing in the Museum Shop (looking at Einstein ducks)

Have a browse

Fancy a souvenir of your visit?

From astrolabes and activity packs to eco-friendly mugs and periodic table goodies — drop by our Museum Shop.

Periodic Table Collection

From books and mugs to tea towels and tags — explore the Periodic Table

Take a look

Own your own Astrolabe

Hold the universe in your hand — and discover how our ancestor used astrolabes to answer the big human question: where are we in time and space?

Browse in the Shop

Time turner?

Capture time at your fingertips ... this elegant dial was the brain-child of the same man who invented the slide rule and popularised using the ‘x’ symbol for multiplication.

Take a look