Heirlooms of Industry in the Science Museum¹

Abstract

THE idea of a general museum of science is only seventy-five years old, and was due to the Prince Consort, who, after the Great Exhibition of 1851, urged the formation of an institution which would extend the influence of science and art on productive industry. From this proposal arose the Science and Art Department with, as an essential part of it, the South Kensington Museum, the dual activities of which are now represented by the Science Museum and by the Victoria and Albert Museum respectively.