At the museum

Robbie Thomson, the artist behind our XFRMR event, answers some questions about his work.

What do Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Jonathan Creek and the Associate Curator at the Science and Industry Museum have in common? We all love solving a mystery.

As 2018 draws to a close, we take a look back at your favourite blog posts this year. 

If you’ve read any of our Rocket blogs, you’ll already know that Rocket was designed by Robert Stephenson, son of engineer George Stephenson. But who exactly were they? What made them tick, and how did they rise to the heights that they did?

Here’s a question you probably haven’t been asked: in a game of museum object charades, how would you act out an ornate 19th century glass lamp shade?

You may be surprised to learn that our ‘Great Western Warehouse’ (formerly ‘Main Building’) has been renamed ‘New Warehouse’. What’s so new about it?

Curator of Engineering Sarah Baines takes a look at the innovative thinking of James Joule, whose ideas on heat and energy were initially thought to be so revolutionary they were rejected by the scientific establishment.

Consultant curator Paul Bonaventura talks about the thinking behind the amazing artworks that were specially commissioned for Electricity: The spark of life.

Years of work by curators, archivists and designers go into making each of our exhibitions a reality—but very few people have the chance to speak to them in person about the ideas behind each show. 

We take a look at the work our conservation team did with two of the more unusual objects in our Electricity exhibition, the electric eel and the red phonebox.

Michael Bailey, author of Rocket: A history of a pioneering locomotive, talks about the engineering that set Rocket apart from its rivals.

What the heck is a hackathon? We chat coding competitions with HackManchester’s Claire Foster.