The Science Museum Group cares for an astonishingly diverse and internationally significant collection of 7.3 million items from science, technology, engineering, medicine, transport and media.
Together these objects tell the story of our world—from the rise of the Indus Valley civilisation over 3,000 years ago to the microchips powering our connected planet today.
We have embarked on an ambitious project to transform how we care for and share this remarkable collection with the world. This once-in-a-generation project will dramatically improve public access to many thousands of historic items, enabling you to explore more of the collection than ever before.
About the collection
Our collection traces its origin back to the 1851 Great Exhibition. Among the 7.3 million items we now care for there are:
- 140,000 medical items, including the long-term loan of the Wellcome Collection
- 38,000 items relating to railway locomotives, technology and railway life
- 26,000 scientific instruments
- 17,000 items of photographic, cinematographic and televisual technology
- 7,000 artworks
Standout items from our collection include: Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE computer; one of the first models used to represent atoms; Charles Babbage’s drawings and models; Dorothy Hodgkin’s model of penicillin; Helen Sharman’s spacesuit and Tim Peake’s spacecraft; Amy Johnson’s Gipsy Moth aircraft; famous locomotives from Stephenson’s Rocket and Sans Pareil to Mallard and Flying Scotsman and the world’s earliest surviving photographic negative.
Access online
You can discover over 300,000 objects, photographs and archive materials on our collection website.
Use the website to:
- Search for a particular object, archive, individual or company;
- Filter your results by date, category or location to narrow your results;
- Find images of objects and archive material in our collection;
- Be surprised with our Google Chrome extension and Random Object Generator
- Be the first to see a newly digitised object with Never Been Seen;
- Use our collection API
Our digitisation programme will continue to enhance existing collection information and add new items from the collection to the website.
To give feedback on our collections website, email us.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE ONLINE CATALOGUES
The following resources are also available online:
- Science Museum Group Archive catalogue
- Science Museum Library catalogue
- National Railway Museum Library catalogue (available on the University of York website)
On display
You can visit objects from the collection at each of our museums:
- On display at the Science Museum
- On display at the Science and Industry Museum
- On display at the National Science and Media Museum
- On display at the National Railway Museum
- On display at Locomotion
If you’re visiting to see a particular object, please email us at least 48 hours in advance of your arrival so that we can ensure it’s on display.
Visit by appointment
You can view objects and archive and library materials which are not on display by appointment.
- Dana Research Centre and Library at the Science Museum in London
- Insight: Collections and Research Centre at the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford
- Collections Centre at the Science and Industry Museum, Manchester
- Search Engine at the National Railway Museum
- Library and Archive at the National Collections Centre in Wroughton, Wiltshire
ACCESSING THE COLLECTION
The Science Museum Group has begun an ambitious project to transform how we care for and share our collection with the world.
Over 300,000 objects held at Blythe House in London are in the process of being studied, photographed, packed and moved into a new building at the National Collections Centre in Wiltshire.
The first of these objects began arriving at the new facility in June 2021, and the new building will open regularly for public tours, school and research visits from 2024.
Due to this extensive programme of work, access to objects at Blythe House ended in April 2019. Access to objects at the National Collections Centre will not be possible until 2024.
The majority of objects in the Science Museum Group Collection will be digitised as part of this project, with hundreds of new images published online each month.
Other opportunities
A Brief History of Stuff
Even the most ordinary objects have extraordinary stories to tell. The new podcast from the Science Museum Group explores the past, present and future of the everyday things in your home with host Nihal Arthanayake.
From the collection
This analytical engine, the first fully-automatic calculating machine, was constructed by Charles Babbage. Only part of the machine was completed before his death.
Science Museum Group
Stephenson's Rocket in the Making the Modern World gallery at the Science Museum.
Sans Pareil was designed and built by Timothy Hackworth and took part in the Rainhill Trials in 1829.
Zvezda space suit made by SOKOL and used by British astronaut Helen Sharman during the space flight on board the SOYUZ-TM-12 and MIR spacecraft in May 1991.
Science Museum Group Collection
Tracy the sheep, a transgenic ewe, genetically modified to produce a human protein (alpha antitrypsin) in her milk.
A graphical record of electricity generated or demanded on the grid and at power stations—an early example of 3D visualisation.
The AXBT microphone was the fourth generation of Marconi’s ‘Type A’ microphones and was used by the BBC from the 1930s onwards.
Science Museum Group Collection
A photograph of a kitten splashing in a saucer of milk, taken in 1958 by Terry Fincher for the Daily Herald.
The model Apple I was the first computer made by Apple Computers Inc.
Science Museum Group Collection
London & North Eastern Railway steam locomotive 'Mallard' 4-6-2 A4 Pacific class, No 4468.
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum”
