| Established | 1843 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1927 |
| Location | King's College London, London, United Kingdom |
| Type | University museum |
The King George III Museum was a museum within King's College London, England between 1843 and 1927 which held the collections of scientific apparatus of King George III and other eminent nineteenth-century scientists including Sir Charles Wheatstone and Charles Babbage. The scientific apparatus collection of King George III, after whom the museum is named, was donated to the university by Queen Victoria in 1841, and the museum was opened by Albert, Prince Consort on 1 July 1843. The museum was located within the King's Building designed by Sir Robert Smirke. Among its collections the museum held the unfinished prototype of the Difference Engine No. 1, designed by Charles Babbage, considered a "father of the computer".[1] The museum closed in 1926, and much of its collections were transferred on loan to the Science Museum.
History
editThe scientific collections of George III were previously housed in the Kew Observatory, Kew, which had been the king's private observatory, constructed to observe the Transit of Venus in 1769. In the mid-ninteenth century the government discontinued the maintainance of Kew, giving rise to the need to house the collections elsewhere.[2] The collection of electrical and mechanical apparatus for use in scientific experimentation, which had formed the nucleus of the royal collection and had served for the instruction of the royal children, was donated to the university by Queen Victoria in 1841 and the museum was opened by Albert, Prince Consort on 1 July 1843.[3][2] The royal gift was presented to the College for the purposes of maintaining "a general course of experimental philosophy"[1] with the stipulation that it should remain intact and be associated with the name of its royal founder.[4]
The museum held the collections of Sir Charles Wheatstone, Professor of Chemistry and Experimental Philosophy at King's, which were bequethed to King's College following his death in 1875.[1] In 1926, due to space constrainsts within the College much of the museum's collections were transferred on loan to the Science Museum or kept in the College archives.[3][1]
Location
editThe museum was located in a double-height galleried space opposite the Council Room in the King's Building designed by Sir Robert Smirke part of the Strand Campus that later became the Physics Department.[1]
Footnotes
editReferences
edit- Browell, Geoff (July 2007). The King George III Museum. King's College London. p. 14.
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- Journals
- A. A. (1952). "Review of J. A. Chaldecott 'Science Museum: Handbook of the King George III Collection of Scientific Instruments'". Bulletin of the British Society for the History of Science. 1 (7): 187–187. doi:10.1017/S0950563600000658.
- Filippoupoliti, Anastasia (2011). "Premises for exhibition and use: King's College London Museum, mid- to late 19th century". Museum History Journal. 4 (1). Left Coast Press: 11–28.
- Websites
- "The King George III Collection". Science Museum, London. Retrieved 17 August 2013.