Collections

At the Museum of Science and Industry, Heritage Lottery Funding has helped acquire two fascinating objects, Richard Arkwright’s water frame and the only surviving piece of equipment from the Manchester hydraulic power system.

Curators are creative folk—and spending all day with the amazing objects in our collections can lead to some interesting trains of thought.

Textile production and computing—two of Manchester’s most important historic industries—are brought together in the Jacquard loom, on display in our Textiles Gallery.

This year, as part of Manchester Science Festival, we are working with Cornbrook Creative as they present A Grand Exposition: a three-day celebration of art, science, and the creativity that connects them both.

Robert Peston and his guests were under strict instructions to not eat the croissants on his desk. Exactly why were ITV’s pastries left untouched?

In this second part of his post about Pakistan Railways SP/S 3157, Jan Shearsmith discusses the loco’s later life and journey back from India to Manchester.

Ahead of its appearance in Nikhil Chopra’s New North and South art installation, Jan Shearsmith discusses the early life of Pakistan Railways SP/S 3157.

161 years ago, on 26 August 1856, the world’s first synthetic dye was patented by William Henry Perkin, whose archive is now part of our collection.

August 2017 marks 225 years since the death of Richard Arkwright. Here, we look at both his entrepreneurship and the controversy that surrounded him.

Who was John Dalton, and what part does he play in the story behind our Wonder Materials exhibition?

Archivist Ceri Forster reveals the electrifying story of some of the newest items in our collection.

Here in the museum archive, we’re always happy to hear from people who have interesting documents to add to our collections.