Since Isaac Newton, Cambridge’s famous scientists have brought many discoveries to the world. Last July, during my two-week programme at Cambridge, I also explored the scientific side of this temple of scholarship. Join me in a stroll around Downing College, and admire with me some of the scientific treasures displayed in four specialized museums, all conveniently located in the same area: the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Museum of Zoology, and the delightful Whipple Museum of the History of Science. As they are smaller than London’s Natural History Museum or Science Museum, for example, each museum offers an enjoyable experience, a voyage in time, space, and knowledge without feeling overwhelmed by the size of the exhibitions or the crowds of tourists. I presented them in my photo-album below as part of a one-day circuit in Scientific Cambridge, but as these museums have a free entrance, it is very easy for you to go into any of them and have a good time, just browsing and admiring the displays in a few glass cabinets… or enjoy a coffee break at The Whale Café!

This photo-album acts as a companion to my last research paper Science and Art in Britain’s “Modern” History, available on my blog: https://eternal-student.com/2024/10/22/science-art-in-britains-modern-history/ and completes the photo-album of my two-week stay in Cambridge: https://eternal-student.com/2024/07/23/a-two-week-holiday-in-cambridge/.

Illustration on top of this post: Grand orrery (planetarium), by George Adams, c. 1750, photo courtesy of the Whipple Museum in Cambridge: https://collections.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/objects/9010/