The Museums of Science and Technology: From a Collection of Technical Innovations to Historico-Technical Collections

Abstract

The emergence of the museums of science and technology is associated with many factors such as the Industrial Revolution, the interest in collecting, and society’s demand for education and training. As a rule, museums were created based on already assembled collections or by organizing major exhibitions in order to collect relevant objects. The article discusses the history and goals of establishing two largest science and technology museums in Europe, the Kensington Museum (Science Museum) in London and the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers in Paris, and the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, whose creation was influenced by the aforementioned European museums. The article also analyzes the shifts in the composition of collections in these three museums, depending on their maturity, and shifts in the attitude towards “aging” items. Based on museum catalogs and other published sources, the development of museum collections is traced from the predominance of new technologies to the formation of historico-technical collections.