The Science Museum Group (SMG) consists of five British museums: * The Science Museum in South Kensington, London * The Science and Industry Museum in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

* The National Railway Museum in York * The Locomotion Museum (formerly the National Railway Museum Shildon) in County Durham * The

National Science and Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...

(formerly the National Media Museum and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television) in Bradford Items in the SMG collection that are not on display are usually stored at the National Collections Centre in

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

, Wiltshire.

History

The origins of SMG lie in the internationalisation and optimism of the

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...

of 1851, which enabled the foundation of the South Kensington Museum in 1857. The term "National Museum of Science and Industry" had been in use as the Science Museum's subtitle since the early 1920s. Prior to 1 April 2012 the group was known as the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI). The

, formerly the National Media Museum, was established by the Science Museum in 1983. The Science Museum was run directly by HM Government until 1984, when the Board of Trustees was established and NMSI was then adopted as a corporate title for the entire organisation. At this point NMSI became a non-departmental public body under the auspices of the sponsoring government department, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. From January 2012 the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester became part of the Science Museum Group. From 2017 Locomotion, The National Railway Museum at Shildon, became part of the Science Museum Group. In 2010 the

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

opened its climate science gallery Atmosphere which, as at April 2021, has been visited by over 5 million people. In 2021 the

also opened a temporary exhibition 'Our Future Planet' which explores the science of

carbon capture Carbon capture may refer to: * Carbon capture and utilization, where the captured carbon dioxide is used * Carbon sequestration, where the captured carbon dioxide is stored ** Carbon capture and storage, referring to carbon sequestration from point ...

. Environmental campaigners criticized the decision of SMG to appoint Shell as a major sponsor of this exhibition. Throughout 2021 SMG is hosting Climate Talks which are a series of online talks, Q&As and events exploring problems arising from

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. In October 2021, the SMG announced that a new climate change gallery to be opened in 2023 at the Science Museum would be sponsored by an arm of coal producer Adani Group. SMG continues to work to reduce carbon emissions from operations, recruitment and supply chain, and by using resources efficiently. On 15 April 2021 SMG announced that it expects to achieve overall Net Zero/Carbon Neutrality by 2033.

Collection

The collection includes: * Alan Turing's Pilot ACE computer * '' Flying Scotsman'' * Charles Babbage's drawing and models *

Dorothy Hodgkin Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential fo ...

's model of penicillin * Tim Peake's Soyuz TMA-19M spaceship * Helen Sharman's space suit *

Winifred Penn-Gaskell Winifred Ethel Penn-Gaskell (12 November 1874 – 6 November 1949) was a British philatelist who in 1938 was the first woman to be added to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists.Background notes on The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists Septembe ...

's collection of stamp cards and covers *

Richard Arkwright Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as t ...

's water frame spinning machine Over 350,000 of the items in the SMG's collections are available to view online at SMG's Search Our Collection web page.

Chairman and Directors

The chairman of the group is

Dame Mary Archer Mary Doreen Archer, Baroness Archer of Weston-super-Mare ( Weeden; born 22 December 1944) is a British scientist specialising in solar power conversion. She is married to Jeffrey Archer, a former chairman of the Conservative Party. Early li ...

who was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron for the four-year term from 2015 from 2018. Dame Mary Archer was reappointed as Chairman 2019–2022 in January 2018. The following have been directors of the National Museum of Science and Industry, the Science Museum and the Science Museum Group: * Dame Margaret Weston DBE FMA (1973–1986) * Sir Neil Cossons OBE FSA FMA (1986–2000) * Dr

Lindsay Sharp Lindsay Gerard Sharp is a museologist who lives near Wollongong/Gerringong in the coastal hinterland of New South Wales in Australia. He works as a museum consultant and writer. Born in Britain and raised in Australia, Sharp earned his doctorate ...

(2000–2005) * Prof. Martin Earwicker FREng (2006–2007) The following have separately been directors of the NMSI: * Prof. Martin Earwicker FREng (2007–2009) * Molly Jackson (2009) * Andrew Scott CBE (2009–2010) * Ian Blatchford (2010–)

References

External links

*
The official print website
containing over 40,000 images from the various museum collections {{authority control National museums of the United Kingdom Science and technology in the United Kingdom Museums sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government Museum organizations