Excerpt:
The Museum of the Oxford University's History of Science houses an unrivalled collection of historic scientific instruments in the world's oldest surviving purpose-built museum building, the Old Ashmolean on Broad Street, Oxford. By virtue of the collection and the building, the Museum occupies a special position, both in the study of the history of science and in the development of western culture and collecting.
Annotation:
This is the home page for Oxford University's Museum of the History of Science. An overview provides a sense of the museum's collection, and a paragraph describes its history (and the history of the building it is housed in) since 1683. There are seven excellent online exhibits with numerous graphics and photographs, including pieces on the history of photography, mathematics and astronomy. All are composed for a lay audience. For researchers, a remarkable searchable database of over 13,000 objects allows visitors to find and view artifacts in the museum's collection. These objects span the entire history of science and technology, and many of them are extremely rare. Another section of the site features some of the best portraits, instruments and illustrations in the archive.