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Father Christmas arriving at Selfridges department store in London, 30 October 1933                                                                                     Daily Herald Archive/National Science & Media Museum/SSPL

Seasons Greetings

We hope this finds you well and wish you the very best of the season

We are currently working remotely but are endeavouring to meet your requests. In the meantime, we are also delving into our amazing collections to discover and bring to light new imagery. 

Our photo studio are now focusing on the new One Collection digitisation project, our most ambitious project to date, to photograph all of the  320,000 items that are currently being transported from our London site,  to our purpose built collections management facility; the National Collections Centre in Wroughton. The project started in 2018 and is to be completed by 2023.  

Additionally, we are placing emphasis on digitising entire collections at our other sites too, so look out for all the new images coming your way. For the moment, bespoke photography has been put on hold, while our photographers focus on these bigger projects. 

Bees at the Museum!

Keeping Beesy...
In October honeybees arrived at the Science Museum, London, as part of a drive to enhance biodiversity across all of the Science Museum Group sites.  The lack of large-scale pesticide use in cities means the bees are at an advantage compared to their country cousins. Parks, community allotments, roof gardens, and other areas of planting all provide much needed food for the bees. The Science Museum bees will be looked after organically, with the bees keeping all their honey.

Beekeepers Paul and Nico make their way through the Exploring Space gallery at the Science Museum                   Science Museum/SSPL

Curatorial favourite

Tilly Blyth- Head of Collections and Principal Curator

As a Londoner who regularly travels on the tube (or did until Covid-19 hit) I love the images we have of the construction of the Metropolitan Railway in about 1861. As the world''s first underground railway, it used the “cut and cover” technique, and shows the massive ambition of our Victorian ancestors. Its creation caused massive disruption to Londoners at the time, but left a vast legacy as it linked our three main railway stations, Paddington, Euston and King''s Cross, and provided the infrastructure we still rely on as a an international city today.

Construction of the Metropolitan Railway, about 1861.                         National Railway Museum/SSPL

Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine                                                                                                                                  Science Museum/SSPL

Vial-iant efforts

On Tuesday 8 December 2020 at 6.45am, history was made at Coventry University Hospital as the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was used for the first time anywhere in the world as part of a mass immunisation programme. 90-year-old Margaret Keenan was given the first of two immunisation injections against the coronavirus as part of the NHS programme. 

In some exciting news, we are adding the empty vial and syringe from Margaret’s historic immunisation to the Science Museum Group Collection. It will go on display next year.

Keeper of Medicine, Natasha McEnroe reveals more on our blog

SMG News

We have collated some of our blogs for you to keep you entertained and inspired:

Our Art Fund Museum of the Year 2020 win!

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/art-fund-museum-of-the-year-2020-winner/

Aiming for the stars: Mae Jemison:

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/aiming-for-the-stars/

Our Christmas Gift Guide

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/science-museum-christmas-gift-guide/