We've made a bit of a tradition of visiting these kins of museums (Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris, Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in Athens, Galileo Museum in Florence). We also checked out the two alchemist museums/exhibits in Prague for good measure. :)
Are there more, in other European locations we should put on our list?
Thank you!
The Deutsches Museum in Munich/Germany is the world's largest science and technology museum.
City of Arts and Science in Valencia. The buildings are spectacular.
The Science Museum in London for sure.
I work as a blacksmith, so the Museums of the Iron Bridge Gorge were a must. Especially the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron and the old Iron furnace where Abraham Darby developed Iron making with coke fuel, rather than charcoal, in the first decade of the 18th century, kicking off the Industrial Revolution.
Then there's the Iron Bridge itself. The first Iron structure and built during the course of the American Revolution -- March 1776 an act to build the bridge; November 1777 construction begins and opens January 1, 1781 the Bridge opens.
Coalbrookdale by night happens to be one of my favorite artworks -- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalbrookdale_by_Night
I would add Bletchley Park to the list.
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The Deutsches Museum should really be on the top of the list. And in many older unversity towns/cities you can often find a university museum with historical exhibitions.
Also, is there any particular part of science and technology you prefer?
As mentioned twice already, the Deutsches Museum in Munich is what you’re looking for.
I've learned so much about science, technological advancements, engineering, etc. from museums about a particular industry or history of a product. Examples in no particular order:
Another sub-genre of this are "Cabinets of Wonders" or Wunderkammers, where scientific instruments, specimens, and discoveries mixed with art, jewels, and relics. A few great examples:
Finally honorable mention to the Centrale Montemartini in Rome that combines ancient Roman artifacts with some industrial history at Rome's first public electricity power station.
Are you including tech and science when applied to warfare? If yes, then I suggest that museum in Koblenz.
I saw the tech museum in Wetzlar once, the focus of the museum: Optics, and there is another museum on Optics in Jena.
If you're going to North Germany, you can check out the tech museum in Osnabrück.
In Milan, the "Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci" whose mission includes:
https://www.museoscienza.org/en/museum/mission
"research, acquire, preserve, make accessible, interpret and communicate tangible and intangible evidence connected to science, technology and industry with reference to the past and the contemporary"
For example, "The Telegraphy, Telephony, Radio and Television collections of the Museum offer an overview of the milestones in this fascinating history."
https://www.museoscienza.org/en/offer/permanent-exhibitions
I remember being in the Technology exhibit with my Dad as he was describing how he had used the very punch card readers and early computer terminals on display.
Barcelona has a few actually :
CosmoCaixa Barcelona - museum devoted to environment, nature, science, and space
Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona - addition to natural-history exhibits a Mediterranean botanical garden
Barcelona Maritime Museum - recently renovated located in the old royal arsenals, demonstrating history and science behind Barcelona's centuries old nautical dominance of the Mediterranean
-Marie Curie Museum / Musée Curie in Paris housed in the old Radium Institute including labatories and office of this famous scientist.
-Otto-Lilienthal-Museum in Anklam northern Germany. Small but interesting museum about the first person who dit scientific research to aviation aerodynamics and so invented the basic principles for flying with airplanes.
- Atomkellermuseum in Haigerloch south of Stuttgart in Germany. Surprisingly interesting small museum about the nazi's attempt to build the first nuclear reactor with the aim to make the first nuclear bomb.
In Dresden, I enjoyed the math and physics museum at Zwinger as well as the Hygiene Museum.
We too visit science museums, locations of discoveries (with plaques in the UK) and homes of scientists when we travel. Over several trips to the Deutches Museum in Munich we’ve not seen it all but tried to find the collections that interested us that day.
We also like the History of Science Museum in Oxford. https://www.hsm.ox.ac.uk/. I was more fond of the Galileo Museum in Florence before it’s modernization. I’m hoping to see this summer that the Mendel Museum at the Monastery in Brno has improved, at least in its signage, since our only visit in 1998. I hope we can still walk in the pea garden.
My favorite home to visit was Charles Darwin’s Down House. Getting there required a train and taxi from London but it was a fantastic discovery. We were able to walk the Sand Walk in the garden and wander through the rooms that reflected a very active and curious family life.
Walking into Marie Curie’s lab in 2019 gave me chills.
My husband is the scientist in our family but I’ve enjoyed all of the museums and homes we’ve been to. I hope you enjoy some of the many suggestions mentioned above by these wonderful forum members too.
Ah, yes, I had forgotten about the Mathematical Gallery at the Zwinger in Dresden. Great collection and almost like a separate museum. And that then reminded me of another great collection of scientific instruments at the Germanische Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. Although the museum itself is broader than just the history of science, I thought they did a good job with their substantial array of science-based artifacts.
In addition to places mentioned above, we have enjoyed the Industrial Heritage museum in Bologna ( much of it about silk production and Ducatis) and the Science and Technology galleries at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
https://www.erih.net/i-want-to-go-there/site/museum-of-industrial-heritage
If you go to Mulhouse for the train museum, also make time for the auto museum. While the layout is primitive, there are over 400 cars.
There is also a very nice cafeteria.
When you take the S-Bahn from Vienna, not from Wien Hbf , to Deutsch Wagram, adjacent to the train stop in Wagram is a small , compact train museum from the Imperial (K & K) days, a pleasant surprise.
I wasn't aware of that since I was going to Wagram to see the battlefield memorial museum , ca. a 30 mins walk from the station.
perhaps check out the amazing variety at the V&A in London and see if anything works?
Even that particle physics for most part remains a mystery to me, visiting once CERN near Geneva Switzerland must be great. The majority of the guided tours are English spoken, a few French. https://visit.cern/guided-tours-individuals
Ah yes CERN. We’ve visited twice. Once with our college students when they were between trials and let us walk on a bridge up and over the accelerator and the second time with our science teacher family members for a ground floor, more typical tour. It was fascinating.
I asked my husband what some of his favorite places have been and in addition to several I mentioned earlier, he said Santa Croce in Florence to see Galileo’s sarcophagus (read Galileo’s Daughter ahead of time). And last summer when we visited Göttingen, Germany we walked almost a mile from the city center to a beautiful old cemetery where their Nobel winning scientists are buried, thankfully in a well designed area. The cemetery was huge and there was a map just for the scientists’ grave locations. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtfriedhof_(G%C3%B6ttingen)#:~:text=The%20old%20Stadtfriedhof%20(City%20Cemetery,Richard%20Zsigmondy%20and%20Manfred%20Eigen.
Thanks Mona, fascinating thread btw!
I've had Frohnauer Hammer in Germany on my list of places to visit when I can finally get to the Czech Republic -- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frohnauer_Hammer
Maybe not a perfect match, but a close cousin, Hans Peter Porsche's (yes that Porsche) Traumwerk museum is full of interesting design, engineering and history in the world of toys.
Not a museum, but the Eagle in Cambridge where Watson and Crick first announced their discovery of the structure of DNA. I was very disapponted last summer that the Jenner Museum is closed.
The Science and Industry museum in Manchester is pretty good, and I love the Science Museum in London, but as others have mentioned, the Deutsches Museum in Munich is simply stunning (Even if the city itself wasn't marvellous, which it is, it would be worth visiting purely for the museum)
