Since my previous post on the Steampunk exhibition in Oxford, the exhibition has closed and the exhibits have either returned to their creators or have been sold.  Today, on BBC, there is coverage of a Steampunk gathering in London, featuring the many aspects of the genre … it got me thinking about posting a few other things that I have found about Steampunk recently.

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Steampunk has arrived at the Museum of the History of Science!  In the world’s first purpose-built museum building is the world’s first museum-housed exhibition of steampunk art.  Curated by Art Donovan and Jim Bennett, this exhibition is a radical departure for the Museum of the History of Science, and is very successful in blending the artworks in the main special exhibition with a number of museum items displayed in the small basement gallery.

If you are in town, it is definitely worth a visit.  We visited the week after it opened on Sunday and we waited in line to enter the exhibition … a real rarity for the Museum!  Inside, you are confronted with a variety of steampunk artifacts (for some photos, click here).  The overall effect is quite interesting and completely different from any of the other exhibitions that the Museum has housed.  The time that we visited, it was very busy and we were not able to spend a lot of time … so, I really need to go back and spend more time examining some of the exhibits closer.

It is a wonderland for the imagination and highly recommended!

For more information, see:

• Exhibit Blog
• Exhibit Premier

For those who cannot get to Oxford, here is video (also available on the Museum’s site):

This is a new exhibition opening at the Museum of the History of Science and it will then be going to the Yale Center for British Art.  It is focused on the role of geometry in the early modern period of English history, touching on major figures such as King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and George III, plus practicioners, such as Christopher Wren.

The exhibit will open on 16 June and run until 6 Sept in Oxford.  For more information, click here.

This last Sunday, I added up the attendance at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford and noticed that we had experienced a large increase in attendance, as compared to last January. So, can it be because of the failing economy that we are having more people come through the door? Well, according to statistics from the US, it seems that the economy is helping to boost people’s use of museums and libraries. Read more »

Check out the Museum of the History of Science’s Flickr page.  It is full of nice images taken around the MHS by tourists.  Some of them are very interesting and some of them are just okay …

The Scientific Instrument Society’s 25th Anniversary Exhibition is currently on exhibit at the Museum of the History of Science until 26 September 2008. It is a loan exhibition from members of the SIS of 50 items from 20 private collectors. The web version of the exhibition contains images of all the items plus the descriptions written by the collectors and the exhibits two curators. Read more »

Moonscope was a special exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford from 24 May – 16 September 2007 and now the web version of it is available – Web Version of Moonscope. It showcased the work of two artists, Rebecca Hind (a local Oxford watercolorist) and John Russell (an 18th century painter/polymath). John Russell was both a royal portrait painter and a keen amateur astronomer, with very good connections – including to Sir William Herschel and Nevil Maskelyne. The Russell material was a selection of pencil drawings made of the moon, his main astronomical interest, and the large 5ft pastel of the moon that normally hangs in the stairwell of the MHS.

The web version has the full complement of watercolors and pencil drawings that were on exhibit in the Old Ashmolean.

PDF version of the Broadsheet that went with this exhibition (John Russell Material)