̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Whipple Museum of the History of Science

Cambridge Festival celebrates pioneering women for International Women’s Day

zs332 — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 10:28:52 +0000

For International Women’s Day (8 March), the Cambridge Festival (19 March – 4 April) is celebrating some of the remarkable contributions of women across diverse fields. From philosophy and music to AI and cosmology, the festival will highlight the pioneering work of women who have shaped our understanding of the world in profound ways.

An instrumental collection

ta385 — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 09:00:00 +0000

Hundreds of scientific treasures are going on display as the Whipple Museum marks the 75th anniversary of a remarkable donation to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

World first as Bell Burnell pulsar chart goes on display

sjr81 — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 09:52:27 +0000

Iconic object exhibited for the first time, alongside works by Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library.

Would you place a Grand National bet on a Shetland pony?

amb206 — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 09:48:38 +0000

Scroll to the end of the article to listen to the podcast.

One hundred and seventy years ago, the French state commissioned a physician called Louis Auzoux to make models of horse’s teeth as examples of healthy and unhealthy equine dentition. At a time when cadavers were in short supply, Auzoux had pioneered a method of making realistic models of human and animal bodies to use as teaching aids.

As horses mature, and then grow older, their teeth change. People familiar with horses can gauge a horse’s age by looking in its mouth. This practice is the origin of the saying, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” In fact, this was a very good idea if you were buying a horse; in order to make an animal appear younger, and demand a higher price, dishonest dealers sometimes filed down horses’ teeth.

Malformed teeth, which prevent a horse from eating properly and affect its performance, are another problem to look out for – as are signs of ‘vices’ such as crib-biting and wind-sucking.

̽��ֱ��Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge has a set of horse teeth models made by a factory set up by Auzoux. Dated 1890, and still housed in the sturdy case made to transport them, this ‘box set’ of smiling and grimacing equine teeth is one of the best-loved objects in the museum and takes prime position in its twitter feed.

Less than half a mile from the Whipple Museum is the Museum of Classical Archaeology, home to 35 plaster casts of horses, taken from the originals. Cantering, trotting, rearing and frolicking, these horses are the stars of the procession which winds its way around the famous frieze adorning the Parthenon, the showpiece temple atop the Akropolis in Athens.

̽��ֱ��Parthenon was erected when Athens was a flourishing city-state. Construction began in 447 BCE and was finally finished in 432. ̽��ֱ��temple celebrated the city’s patron goddess, Athena. ̽��ֱ��horses on the frieze were part of a procession honouring her during the Great Panathenaea. A festival which took place every four years, it featured athletic games including wrestling, javelin throwing and chariot racing.

̽��ֱ��frieze shows representatives of the city – city elders and officials, soldiers, young men and unmarried maidens, and even resident aliens, known as ‘metics’ – coming together to process from the city walls to the top of the Akropolis and the temple itself. “These human figures represented the city, or polis, in microcosm,” says Dr Susanne Turner, curator of the Museum of Classical Archaeology.

It is the horses, though, which dominate the frieze. Powerful and compact, with manes and tails flowing and small holes in the marble indicating that they originally wore bronze bridles, the horses are well attuned to the easy grace of the athletic youths on their backs and at their sides. Some of the riders wear flowing cloaks which fan out behind them, as if caught by a breeze. Many wear no other clothes.

“Their nudity is a sort of costume in itself,” says Turner. “There’s something inherently Greek about their nakedness. It connotes strength, beauty and idealised youthful masculinity, but it also carries a wider sense of cultural belonging.”

̽��ֱ��rhythm of repeated and overlapping diagonals, made by the limbs of horses and riders, leads the eye across what was originally a frieze 160m in length, made up by 115 blocks. On the Parthenon the frieze would have soared 12m above floor level. “Viewers approaching the temple saw first the horses and their riders preparing to join the procession,” says Turner.

“As they turned the corner to walk along the long sides of the temple, so too did the horses, now with riders and chariots. Layered side by side in small groups, they form a cavalcade whose forward motion draws the viewer onwards until they reach the doors of the temple – where the goddess herself was revealed inside, some 10m tall and sculpted from bright white ivory and shining gold.”

Much ancient sculpture was brightly painted and the Parthenon frieze was probably no exception. Surviving evidence for colour is, however, scant. “Ancient colour combinations, where they can be reconstructed, often look harsh and garish to modern eyes. We tend to prefer our classical sculpture white,” says Turner. “ ̽��ֱ��Parthenon horses probably galloped across a bright blue background, their riders’ clothing and hair picked out in primary colours, perhaps with some gold leaf, too.”

̽��ֱ��casts were purchased by the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1884, when the Museum of Classical Archaeology was first founded. Produced by a London workshop run by the Brucciani family, the casts are direct copies of the originals, taken from moulds produced by permission of the British Museum. They preserve the three-dimensional presence of the originals in a way which photographs cannot – breathing life into the horses as they high-step joyfully along the length of the frieze as only horses can.

Horses played a central role in the rise of many great civilisations. Archaeological evidence suggests that they were first domesticated during the Neolithic around 5,000 years ago somewhere in the vast grassy pastures of central Asia. “Botai in Kazakhstan has been identified as one of the earliest sites with domestic horses. Botai horses show tooth wear patterns characteristic of the use of harness, and horse milk lipids on pottery fragments show that horse milk was being used,” says Dr Mim Bower, an expert in ancient DNA at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

“Horse husbandry dispersed from the steppe, westward into Europe, via the grasslands of Eastern Europe or via Iberia, accompanying Bell Beaker cultures, and eastward into China and India. This was concurrent with the spread of chariots and fabulous material culture that comprised the ‘chariot complex’ of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC – for example, the chariot burials at Sintashta and Southern Urals and cylinder seal impressions, depicting horses and chariots, from Kültepe in Turkey.”

̽��ֱ��development of pastoral nomadism in central Eurasia between 1000 and 800 BC secured the role of the horse as a source of speed over ground and as an iconic symbol. ̽��ֱ��archaeological finds associated with this period include exquisitely decorated horse harness and adornments from 4th -3rd century BC sites, such as Pazyryk and Ak-Alakha, Altai and 7th – 4th century BC Arzhan, Tuva.

“Where written records exist for these early periods, for example in China, they highlight the importance of the horse as a symbol of strength and power. Throughout the dynastic eras, horses gained an increasingly important military role. In the Western Zhou period, the raising of horses is recorded as a task that is overseen by kings. In later periods, the military power of the state was measured by the number of horse-chariots,” says Bower.

“These changes are concurrent with, and may have influenced, the intensification of long distance trade routes that connected the far reaches of Eurasia. Tradition states that trade routes, associated with the exchange of silk and spices, between China and Europe, began in the 2nd century BC, instigated by Han Emperor Wu. However, these long distance exchange networks have a deeper past. By 1000 BC, Chinese silk is found in Egypt and by 700 BC in Europe. Horses were almost certainly an integral part of these developments.”

Arab horses were famed for their speed and beauty. It was from the Middle East that three Arab stallions were imported to Britain at the turn of the 18th century. ̽��ֱ��Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerley Turk were crossed with some 70 British mares to produce horses for racing. All British Thoroughbreds trace their lineage back to these world famous ‘foundation stallions’.

̽��ֱ��skeleton of a famous British racehorse called Polymelus was given to Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology in the 1930s and until recently stood sentinel in the museum entrance. Polymelus was the sire (father) of a string of leading racehorses foaled (born) between 1914 and 1921. His son Phalaris was a champion racehorse who went on to sire many winners. Among Polymelus’s other descendants are the racehorses Secretariat and Northern Dancer who also became legends in their time.

In a study carried out in 2012, tiny samples of DNA were taken from one of the teeth of the skeleton of Polymelus. They were analysed at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research as part of an inter-disciplinary project tracing the genes for speed and stamina found in modern thoroughbreds backwards in time to discover their origins. ̽��ֱ��DNA of 12 historic horse skeletons was screened, including that of Eclipse, the most famous of all.

̽��ֱ��work showed just how rapidly the genetic make-up of a breed can be shaped by humans and will help throw light on common health problems experienced by thoroughbreds. Interestingly, the speed gene which gives horses their sprinting ability was traced back to one of the British mares (including a Shetland pony) used at the early stages of the development of the British Thoroughbred line.

Next in the Cambridge Animal Alphabet: I is for a creature inside which investors, men of science and a notable sculptor dined in style on New Year's Eve 1853.

Inset images: Horses on the Parthenon frieze (Museum of Classical Archaeology); skeleton of Polymelus (Musuem of Zoology).

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, H is for Horse – 170-year-old model teeth, the Parthenon friezes, and the surprising origins of racehorses' speed.

In the Western Zhou period, the raising of horses is recorded as a task that is overseen by kings

Mim Bower

̽��ֱ��horses’ teeth

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

̽��ֱ��‘flying scientist’ who chased spores

lw355 — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 09:00:34 +0000

On a July day in 1930, British Airship R100 took to the sky from a Bedfordshire airfield on its first transatlantic flight. As it made its way across the Atlantic Ocean, 2,000ft above sea-level, a window opened and Squadron Leader Booth, wearing a pair of rubber gloves, leaned out. In his hand was a Petri dish.

Below, on the HMS Ausonia, Cambridge mycologist Dr W.A.R. Dillon Weston watched through the porthole of his cabin. It was his Petri dish – in reality, a spore trap, capturing minute particles released from fungi and carried with the wind – that Booth was holding. “ ̽��ֱ��thrill of the airship excited Dillon Weston as much as the thrill of spore chasing,” explained Dr Ruth Horry from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, who has been researching his story.

This adventure was set against the backdrop of what Picture Post magazine declared a “man-versus-fungi battle”. Wheat rust had wiped out enormous areas of American and Canadian wheat production and coffee rust had destroyed entire plantations in Ceylon. “Those who know most about them are still frightened of the fungi,” said Picture Post.

Dillon Weston and fellow scientists suspected that one route of spore transmission over long distances was through air currents. But how to test this? “He was carrying out his studies in the 1920s and 1930s when research methodology was in its infancy,” said Horry. “Where his creativity literally took off was in realising that to test the atmosphere for spores he had to invent ways to catch them, using aeroplanes and home-made Vaseline spore traps.”

“At first sight it may appear ludicrous that the aeroplane can have any significance in biologic research. Is it, however, absurd?” said Dillon Weston in 1929. Intrigued by the finding of some of his American colleagues that aircraft-borne spore traps could detect spores at 11,000 feet, Dillon Weston persuaded friends in the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Air Squadron to fly over the Cambridgeshire countryside at various heights. Although his results were as much about devising the perfect spore trap as about the spores themselves, he concluded that the air was a viable medium for spores to be transported.

“Devastating yet invisible plant diseases were an important enemy to conquer and new aviation technologies were vital in winning the war against them,” said Horry. “Newspaper coverage of the time showed that the scientist who chased invisible diseases captured both tiny spores and the imagination of the public: ‘Disease germs two miles up – flying scientists chase them’ declared one newspaper.”

But it was Dillon Weston’s next foray into the skies that is perhaps the most fascinating as a milestone in mycology, and the history of science, as British Airship R100 took off with his spore traps aboard. ̽��ֱ��mycologist had in effect moved his laboratory from the earth into the skies above.

“He watched the airship through the porthole of his cabin, with his spore traps 2,000 ft skywards in the hands of the airship’s Captain,” said Horry. Using official flight papers, telegrams, family letters and newspaper reports, Horry has pieced together not only the events of the day, but also how he managed to ‘piggy-back’ such a high-profile experimental flight with his homemade spore traps.

“ ̽��ֱ��airship project had been foundering through technical setbacks and lack of financial support,” she explained. “Sensing an opportunity, the Air Ministry co-opted Dillon Weston’s spore experiment as a means of adding scientific legitimation to the scheme – it helped to sell an unknown airship to a public suffering from ‘airship fatigue’.”

Dillon Weston’s results from the airship experiment were never published, as it became impossible to repeat this initial trial. Two months after the R100 completed her journey, the British Air Ministry’s airship R101 tragically crashed on its first voyage to India, claiming the lives of all on board. Less than a year after the spore experiment, the airship scheme was terminated.

Although the experiment was never to be repeated, Horry believes that it is representative of a wider concept in science: the idea of ‘piggy-backing’ small-scale experiments on larger scale projects. “Dillon Weston’s scientific work aboard R100 was a small-scale experiment that required complex technologies to reach its location of study,” she said.

“As fascinating as this story of airships and fungi is, its wider value has been in revealing that historians need a better understanding of scientific experiments that are dependent upon large-scale, external technological programmes for their existence.” She points towards astrobiology experiments to study the origins of extraterrestrial life on board early NASA space flights as a more recent example of piggy-back science.

Horry added: “ ̽��ֱ��spore experiment’s subsequent disappearance from view acts as an indicator that other now-forgotten examples of piggyback science could have been attached to large scale 20th-century technologies. It may just require us to don our historical rubber gloves, take to the air and chase them down.”

Inset image – top: Dillon Weston. Credit: John S Murray

Inset image – middle: R100 at mast in Canada. Credit: Ruth Horry

Inset image – bottom: Puffballs - Lycoperdon. Credit: Whipple Museum of the History of Science

A passion for fungi led Cambridge mycologist Dr Dillon Weston to ever-more inventive means of trapping fungal spores, even from the open window of an airship on its maiden flight in the first half of the 20th century.

Newspaper coverage of the time showed that the scientist who chased invisible diseases captured both tiny spores and the imagination of the public

Ruth Horry

̽��ֱ��‘Flying Scientist’ who Chased Spores

Ruth Horry

R100 at mast in Canada

Fungi formed from glass

At the same time as he saw the devastation to crops and financial ruin that fungi could cause, Dr Dillon Weston was mesmerised by their splendour. “People thought fungi repulsive, and I wanted to show how beautiful they can be,” he wrote at the time.

Take Phytophthora infestans, the potato blight pathogen, responsible for destroying potato crops across Europe in the 1840s, contributing to mass starvation and the Great Irish Famine. Dillon Weston used the pathogen as the basis of an intricate glass model the height of a hand’s span, 400-times larger than the actual organism. Its delicate tendrils stretch upwards, crisscrossing each other in a complex and fragile array of strands topped by tiny oval heads crammed with spores. It is beautiful, but this beauty belies the pathogen’s legacy of death.

“He crafted some of his models in microscopic detail, showing fungal processes like spore formation and release,” explained Dr Ruth Horry from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, who has been researching the life stories of objects that become part of museum collections.

His legacy of over 90 models is now housed in the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge. Many are impeccable reproductions in microscopic detail of fungi such as those responsible for the mould commonly seen on bread, the fungus that sweetens wine and the leaf spot found on sugar beet; others are life-sized interpretations of woodland fungi, brightly coloured in russet and ochre; and all would have been an invaluable teaching aid for his students who rarely had access to three-dimensional representations of the organisms they were studying.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. For image rights, please see the credits associated with each individual image.

Yes

Major Partner Museum status for UCM

sjr81 — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 16:39:51 +0000

Over the last three years, Cambridge has made full use of previous Arts Council funding to transform the way its eight major museums work in partnership, and to unlock their world-class collections for both Cambridge and the wider world.

Major successes have included the Thresholds poetry project, curated by Carol Ann Duffy, and Discoveries at 2 Temple Place in London.

Discoveries, now transferred to ̽��ֱ��Fitzwilliam Museum, is the first-ever joint exhibition to involve all ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums and the first exhibition of Cambridge’s globally important research collections to be held outside the city.

And there was further good news today as Kettle’s Yard received first stage backing from Arts Council England to support the creation of a new Education Wing. ̽��ֱ��Arts Council funding, totalling £3.5m, is a substantial step towards the campaign target of £8.7m. Arts Council England have also renewed Kettle’s Yard National Portfolio Organisation status and committed £446,271 funding for the next three years.

Dr Jennifer Barnes, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International Strategy), and Chair of the General Board Museums Committee, said: “These significant awards announced on the same day, recognize the essential role museums and collections play in research, teaching and understanding. Each collection is of global significance, adding an extraordinary dimension to our university, community and region. Cambridge Museums, whether working as a single collection or together, demonstrate that curating the past is about understanding the present and creating new futures. These awards allow us to share that future with all who come to Cambridge, of all ages, whether as visitors, students or researchers.”

UCM plan to use the next round of Arts Council funding to consolidate ongoing progress into understanding, widening and diversifying its audience. Major steps to achieving this have already been undertaken with imaginative learning programmes, digital innovation and deeper connections with communities both in and beyond Cambridge.

UCM is also taking the lead in joining up arts and cultural provision across the city, with Curating Cambridge – a five-week programme of cultural events and activities from October 20 – typifying this new approach.

Tim Knox, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, said: “Being afforded Major Partner Museum status is a huge privilege and one we take very seriously. Arts Council England has fully supported the great strides we’ve made in recent years and, with their continued support, there is plenty of exciting work yet to be undertaken.”

Liz Hide, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums Officer, said: “Here in Cambridge, we are lucky in having many exceptional museums, each of which contribute to the academic, social and community work of the ̽��ֱ��. Our ongoing goal now is to open up the cultural riches of Cambridge to as wide and diverse an audience as possible.”

Hedley Swain, Area Director, South East, Arts Council England, said: “We are pleased to continue supporting ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums. It proposes to deliver an ambitious and broad ranging programme of activity that will support transformational access to its key collections. Its programme of activity will help further develop its position as a leading centre of excellence for conservation and collections based research. It will also continue to build on its pioneering community and lifelong learning programmes, whilst also establishing itself as a centre for innovative digital engagement. ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums also plans to reach more children and young people, with a particular emphasis on using digital platforms, ensuring they have the opportunity to engage with and be inspired by its collections. This work will be underpinned by its exemplar commitment to environmental sustainability, resilience and its support for museums and gallery career and workforce development.”

̽��ֱ��vision of securing Cambridge’s reputation as an international centre of museums excellence received a major boost today when Arts Council England awarded ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums (UCM) nearly £4.5m for 2015-18 and continuing Major Partner Museum status.

Each collection is of global significance, adding an extraordinary dimension to our university, community and region.

Jennifer Barnes

Sir Cam

Polar snow goggles from Discoveries at London’s 2 Temple Place, the first joint exhibition from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums, and the first to be held outside the city.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike

̽��ֱ��importance of university museums

sj387 — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 13:23:34 +0000

This publication, launched at the recent Museums Association Conference in Liverpool, celebrates the growing success of university museums as part of the UK higher education sector, showing the unique benefits these collections deliver to the Higher Education, and wider cultural, sector.

̽��ֱ��report recognises that large, high-profile museums such as the Fitzwilliam Museum are the “major cultural provider[s] in their areas”, while also highlighting the contributions of smaller and specialist museums such as the six ‘embedded’ ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge museums, attached to different Departments, including the Polar Museum, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences and the Whipple Museum.

̽��ֱ�� museums make a unique contribution to the public profile of universities across the UK; they hold 30% of nationally-significant collections but constitute only 4% of England and Wales’ museums. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums (UCM) encompasses five of these nationally significant (‘designated’) collections, one of the largest clusters outside of London.

Last year, more than 100 UK university museums hosted four million public visits to 200 exhibitions and 3,500 public events.

Liz Hide, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums Officer, said: “Here in Cambridge we are lucky in having many exceptional ̽��ֱ�� museums, each of which contribute to the academic, social and community work of the ̽��ֱ��. This report also celebrates the important leadership role they play in the wider museums sector.”

̽��ֱ��report, Impact and Engagement, recognises the important role that ̽��ֱ�� Museums play in supporting and delivering research, as well as inspiring students and enhancing their learning. For example, the Fitzwilliam Museum, working with the Faculty of Education, has enabled object-based learning to be embedded in Primary PCGE courses, and in English, Religious Studies and Modern Foreign Languages in secondary education. In 2013, museum staff ran sessions that were attended by more than 200 Cambridge PGCE students.

̽��ֱ�� Museums also contribute substantially to widening participation, often being the first contact that children and young people have with Higher Education Institutions. ̽��ֱ��UCM’s own Children and Young People’s and Widening Participation Officer, jointly funded through the ̽��ֱ��’s Widening Participation fund, is quoted as an example of good practice in the report.

̽��ֱ��full report is available at http://issuu.com/universitymuseumsgroup/docs/impact_and_engagement

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge museums are among those highlighted as examples of best practice in a new report focusing on the outstanding contributions made by the ̽��ֱ�� Museums Group UK.

Here in Cambridge we are lucky in having many exceptional ̽��ֱ�� museums, each of which contribute to the academic, social and community work of the ̽��ֱ��

Liz Hide

Whipple Museum/James Linsell-Clark

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Summer at the Museums

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 09:00:17 +0000

There is something to be found in every corner of the city as activities bring together the ̽��ֱ�� museums, departments and experts across many fields.

Aiming to offer relief from the unreliable English summer days, ‘Summer at the Museums’ events will run regularly throughout July and August. Families are invited to make glittering treasures at the Fitzwilliam Museum, drop in and draw Kettle’s Yard, create a creature at the Museum of Classic Archaeology or take part in the BioBlitz with the Museum of Zoology.

Competitions will allow kids to put their new knowledge into practice as the ‘Draw What You Saw’ event provides weekly prizes as well as a chance for work to appear on an online gallery. Endless activities for the long summer days can be found all over the city.

In the cool of the evenings the museums will transform into venues where entertainment can be found ranging from classical music in the Botanic Gardens to readings of Ovid’s Metamorphose at the Museum of Classic Archaeology. ̽��ֱ��stunning backdrop of the city of Cambridge provides the perfect environment for a night out.

With everyone catered for, ‘Summer at the Museums’ looks set to provide fun, family friendly days out right in the heart of the city.

Seven ̽��ֱ�� museums will be taking part in the events. These include: the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Botanic Garden, Fitzwilliam Museum, Kettle’s Yard, ̽��ֱ��Polar Museum, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Whipple Museum of the History of Science and the Museum of Zoology. They will be joined by three of the city’s museums: the Cambridge and Country Folk Museum, Cambridge Technology Museum and the Farmland Museum and Denny Abbey. All will continue to open on non-event days providing the opportunity to explore the eclectic collections each has to offer.

Many of the activities are free and available on a drop in basis. Some events will require booking, however. Details of ‘Summer at the Museums’ calendar, as well as information on all the ̽��ֱ��’s museums, can be accessed from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge website. www.cam.ac.uk/museums/summer

More than sixty events are taking place over the school holidays in museums across Cambridge.

SharpeImages vis Flickr

̽��ֱ��Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes