About

curiosity carnival 2017 credit by ian wallman

"This is a must museum to visit ... you can easily wander around for a couple of hours completely enthralled in its contents. One of the main attractions is the original Einstein chalkboard."

Trip Advisor, March 2020

The History of Science Museum houses an unrivalled collection of historic scientific instruments in the world’s oldest surviving purpose-built public museum building, the Old Ashmolean on Broad Street, Oxford.

Our vision

Reveal Beauty – Highlight Ingenuity – Inspire Curiosity

Our mission

Explore the connections between people, science, art, and belief
Give voice to the histories that our collections can tell
Share the stories of science in Oxford

Our history

Established in 1924 as the Lewis Evans Collection, the Museum opened to the public one year later in 1925.

Robert Gunther and Lewis Evans were the driving forces behind the Museum’s creation. Evans donated his scientific instrument collection and Gunter, a scientist, campaigned for their display.

Learn more about the history of the Museum

https://youtube.com/embed/35f9eX72d3A

Together our diverse collection and historic building occupy a special place, both in the study of the history of science and in the development of Western culture and collecting.

Our Museum preserves the objects, instruments, writings, and materials scientists have created to tame, travel, and transform the world around them.

As a department of the University of Oxford, we present these inspiring stories of science to visitors, and make the collections available to historians for study.

We look after around 20,000 objects which cover almost all aspects of the history of science, from ancient to modern times. In particular, we are known for our collections of: