The museum was approached by the University of Bradford, who offered the use of their CT scanner to look inside some cameras to get a closer look at their inner workings. We decided to scan some of the cameras associated with the Cottingley fairy saga, as they are culturally important to the Bradford area. Assistant Curator Saquib Idrees holds the Midg camera used to take the Cottingley fairy photographs, ready for CT scanning at the University of Bradford. Image courtesy of University of Bradford. The two cameras that were selected for scanning, the ‘Midg’ camera and the quarter-plate ‘Cameo ..read more

Looking at intergenerational skill-sharing workshops Pooja and Samman, two members of the youth forum, have been working with us to develop some workshops with local community centre WomenZone. Still in the early days, we are all looking forward to where their project will go. Here are some fantastic words from Samman: “WomenZone is a safe place full of comfort and a sense of community for Asian women. I feel like this particular identity is often overlooked, when talking about brown communities we miss their women and the stories they carry with them that get lost. I feel this is a great oppo ..read more

Stuck for what to do on a rainy summer’s day? Why not watch the 1969 BBC broadcast of the Moon landing? Or maybe the first time the doctor regenerated into another one on Doctor Who back in 1966. Perhaps settle down for a good old chuckle at the early antics of the Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard platoon in Dad’s Army… Well, you can’t—but there is a reason why. We don’t think of television as a disposable medium, but from its inception right up to the 1980s that was exactly how it was regarded. There are great swathes missing from television archives: 97 episodes of Doctor Who are still missing ..read more

The routes into museum jobs can be varied—from an early love of history and heritage to stumbling upon it on TV, or from a family connection to a captivating visit to your local museum. Often museum careers involve perseverance, vocation and chance. Perhaps this post will be your inspiration to work behind the scenes in the heritage sector… Vanessa Torres, Conservator Vanessa Torres Growing up, I had a great eye for detail, I loved looking very closely at things and trying to find out how they were made. One of my favourite pastimes was mixing several cleaning products in a small bowl and clea ..read more

Volunteers’ Week is the national celebration of volunteers and the contributions they make to communities, charities, and society. We’re always grateful for the efforts of our volunteers in supporting the museum—the skills, knowledge and passion of our volunteers make our museum special. But Volunteers’ Week, held annually in the first week of June, is a time when across the country we take a moment to say a special thanks to volunteers and highlight the difference they make. This month also marks a year since the museum closed its doors temporarily for its transformation through our Sound and ..read more

Belle Belle draws inspiration from the fairytale Beauty and the Beast, delivering the message of not judging a book by its cover. The movie focuses on Suzu, a high school student who gains popularity through the virtual reality world called ‘U’ under the persona ‘Belle’. This leads her on an adventure to uncover the identity of a beast fleeing from vigilantes. The highlight of Belle is the animation and original score. The film has jaw-dropping, vibrant visuals that perfectly capture the essence of a virtual reality world and the film immediately immerses you in the world of ‘U’ with its openi ..read more

You may know about our new Sound and Vision galleries opening in 2025, but did you know the project is about more than that? A key part of the Sound and Vision project is all about connecting with our local communities in Bradford. We’re working closely with community groups across the district and delivering updates through Bradford Community Broadcasting (BCB), the local radio station. We also want to truly connect with our communities and give back—and that’s where Community Connections comes in. Community Connections is a volunteer programme for museum staff, allowing us to volunteer with ..read more

It’s been nearly two years since we hosted our first community consultation session as part of our transformational Sound and Vision project. Since then, we’ve spoken with over 270 local people, including community leaders in BD3 and BD5, young people, neurodivergent people and people with lived experience of being d/Deaf, blind or partially sighted. We discussed everything from storytelling on gallery, types of text panels, accessibility of museum spaces through to what a ‘warm welcome’ should look like. Most recently, we invited groups to think about the museum’s public programme—the family ..read more

The Hubble Telescope turns 30 today. But long before this technology was available, astronomers used astrophotography to map the position of the stars and to research the chemical makeup of the universe. The Science Museum Group collection holds the cameras and equipment of the astronomer and chemist who invented photographic dry plates—William de Wiveleslie Abney—at our National Collections Centre in Wroughton. In this video, Head Curator Charlotte Connelly and Assistant Curator Saquib Idrees share a behind-the-scenes peak at some of the early photographic technology used to photograph the st ..read more

In my first post for Blog from the Basement, I detailed the work the collections team had done to de-install all the objects from our Animation and TV Heaven galleries. While this work was going on, we were also decanting one of our large storerooms to prepare the space for a new conservation lab, and an adjacent logistics room to temporarily store incoming and outgoing objects. The storeroom halfway through the decant with some packed objects on the shelf ready for transport.Once all the objects were removed, the shelves were taken down ready for new flooring to be laid. The decant of this st ..read more