Ingenious Tours of Science Museum Stores

JamesD_UK writes "The Science Museum in London has now opened up its storerooms in west London to visitors. A number of guided tours, available on a first-come, first-served basis, have been arranged throughout 2004 and 2005 on topics ranging from mechanical engineering to cosmetics. The stores contain some 170,000 objects, compared with the museum's display of 15,000 objects."

This is welcome news

[gdav]

The Science Museum has recently suffered a bit from showy makeovers that actually reduce the display space for its collection. I'd welcome the chance to see the actual objects, including the larger transport-related stuff, which has mostly disappeared.

My favorite London science musem link

[bluGill]

One of my favorite sites, and something I think all geeks will enjoy: Tim Hunkin's machines [timhunkin.com] He did some work for the London science museum (pictures on his site), so it is on topic.

I hope he can stand up to a slashdotting... if not, save the link and look some otherday, it is well worth it IMHO.

Re:My favorite London science musem link

[3waygeek]

He also created & starred in The Secret Life of Machines [secretlifeofmachines.com], a TV series made for the UK's Channel 4, and occasionally re-run on the Science Channel (formerly Discovery Science).

Smithsonian?

[absurdist]

Now if they'd open up their storerooms and warehouses, that would be pretty incredible. I've done exhibits there, and seen a very small part of their stores... they usually only have 5% or less of their collections on display at any time. "Now let's see... where did we put that Ark again?"

what's so great about that?

[sporktoast]

Hey look, hon! It's 50 crates filled with plastic Hoberman spheres, tiny geodes, erasers shaped like dinosaurs, Gak(TM), and enough glow-in-the-dark stick-on stars to light up the whole city.

What's that? StoreROOMS?

Oh. Nevermind.

Re:what's so great about that?

[JamesD_UK]

:-) I should have been more careful when writing the article. In the UK most people would think of storerooms when stores are mentioned in this context. The glow in the dark stickers are sold in the Science Museum shop. :-)

I thought the same thing

[ElizaYikes]

Ooooh, lots of freeze-dried ice cream! I volunteered at the Science Museum of Virginia for a while when I was a teenager, and I loved the proximity to astronaut ice cream. And quartz crystals and little geodes. LOL

stores

[Anonymous Coward]

At first I thought this story was about a tour of museum gift shops...