An engaging study of a great national institution. Essays explore the changing roles of museums and the perceived public role of a museum of science and technology. Illuminates the ways in which we think about the collecting and display of objects and the often difficult relations between the state, business and industry, and museum funding.

List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Foreword; S.Schaffer Introduction; P.Morris Infected by the Bacillus of Science: The Explosion of South Kensington; R.Bud The First Years: The Science Museum at War and Peace; T.Scheinfeldt The Science Museum and the Second World War; T.Parsons III Ambition and Anxiety: The Science Museum, 1950s to 1983; S.Anthony Parallax Error? A Participant's Account of the Science Museum, c.1980-c.2000; T.Boon Waves of Change: How The Science Museum's Library Rose, Fell and Rose Again; N.Wyatt 'A Worthy and Suitable House' Science Museum Buildings and the Temporality of Space; D.Rooney Exhibiting Science: Changing Conceptions of Science Museum Display; A.Nahum Beyond the Children's Gallery: The Influence of Children on the Development of the Science Museum; A.Bunney 'An Effective Organ of Public Enlightenment': The Role of Temporary Exhibitions in the Science Museum; P.Morris Collecting for the Science Museum: Constructing the Collections, the Culture and the Institution; R.Bud Lifting the Stone: Housing the Collections; J.Liffen The International Context and the Context of Internationalism; T.Scheinfeldt Afterword: The Museum of the Future; C.Rapley Appendix1: List of Temporary Exhibitions from 1912 to 1983 Appendix2: List of Senior Staff from 1893 to 2000 Appendix3: Visitor Figures for the Science Museum from 1909 to 2008