Neither is it a coincidence that from the very beginning onward portraits of famous scientists
and engineers were acquired for the museum’s collections.108 In later years busts and medals
depicting famous individuals were acquired as well. When a preliminary exhibition of the
museum’s collections opened to the public in 1906 - due to multiple delays its purpose-built
housing on an island in the centre of Munich could only be completed in 1925 — this already
included a section reserved for the display of the portraits acquired thus far. The purpose-built
museum building then even included what was referred to as a “hall of honour” for the
display of the effigies from the museum’s collections.109
As one historian has recently summarised, “Das wirklich Neue und Innovative am Deutschen
Museum war letztlich die Übertragung des klassisch-humanistischen Kulturbegriffs auf das
Gebiet der Naturwissenschaften und Technik“.110
Significantly, what was happening in Munich was soon discernible throughout the world.
Within the space of a few decades, museums of science and technology with similar aims had
proliferated all over the globe. To name but a few, the Science Museum was separated from
the South Kensington Museum in London in 1909, the Vienna Technical Museum opened to
the public in 1918 after ten years of preparation, and the National Technical Museum in
Prague opened in 1908.
To whatever degree they were directly influenced by the establishment of the Deutsches
Museum, the designers of these new museums would have been well aware of developments
in Munich.111 Later examples of the Deutsches Museum's direct influence include that of the
American Julius Rosenberg, who was so impressed with what he saw in Munich in 1911 that
he eventually provided $7 million for the establishment of the Museum of Science and
Industry in Chicago, which opened in 1933. In another example, during the early 1930s a
Russian delegation that was planning to establish a “Palace of Technology” in Moscow had
come to Munich looking for inspiration.
Clearly, it was not only those who were involved with the Deutsches Museum who felt that
scientists and engineers deserved more recognition for their contribution to society as a whole
- they were tapping into some widely held sentiments.
In a further indication of the growing sense of pride and community amongst scientists and
engineers as well as an increasing desire to foster this, interest in the history of science and
technology increased significantly during the early decades of the 20th century. The scholarly
journal ISIS for instance, devoted to the history of science, medicine and technology, was first
published in 1912, and the History of Science Society was set up in 1924. In the Netherlands,
10 On the acquisition o f portraits see: Eva A. Mayring, “Das Porträt als Programm,” in Circa 1903: Artefakte in
der Gründungszeit des Deutschen Museums, ed. Ulf Hashagen, Oskar Blumtritt, and Helmuth Trischler
(München: Deutsches Museum, 2003), 55-56.
109 Ibid., 57-62.
Olaf Hartung, Museen des Industrialismus: Formen bürgerlicher Geschichtskultur am Beispiel des
Bayerischen Verkehrsmuseums und des Deutschen Bergbaumuseums (Köln: Böhlau, 2007), 53.
1 On the museum’s role model status throughout its history see: Bernhard S. Finn, “Der Einfluss des Deutschen
Museums auf die internationale Landschaft der Wissenschafts- und Technikmuseen,” in Geschichte des
Deutschen Museums: Akteure, Artefakte, Ausstellungen, ed. Wilhelm Füßl and Helmuth Trischler (München:
Prestel, 2003), 397-405.
a Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Geschiedenis der Geneeskundige Weetenschappen
(NVGGW) had been founded as early as 1898, and around this time a Historical Commission
was also established by members of the Natuur- en Geneeskundig Congres (NGC).112 The
NGC was essentially a society for the promotion of the sciences that held regular national
conferences (it was roughly comparable with the British Association for the Advancement of
Science and its annual conferences). Most importantly, however, the Dutch association for the
history of science, medicine and technology (Gewina) was established in 1913, absorbing all
members of the NVGGW. The preceding decades had already seen ever more frequent
inferences of past achievements of Dutch researchers, with the clear aim of bolstering a sense
of national pride amongst the budding, late 19th century Dutch scientific community.113
This increase in attention the history of science, medicine and technology was receiving
entailed a growing interest in the material witnesses of past science, i.e. the scientific
instruments past researchers had used. In 1907 for instance the Historical Commission
organised a temporary “Historical Exhibition of Science and Medicine” (Geschiedkundige
Tentoonstelling van Natuur- en Geneeskunde) in Leiden to coincide with the eleventh national
congress of science and medicine. As the title page of its catalogue reveals, the exhibition
carried the motto “past is prologue”.114 Medical preparations and scientific instruments on
loan from learned societies and university laboratories from all over the country were
exhibited in two university buildings: the library and the university’s main building. Roughly
a dozen items from Teylers Museum were on display as well, including gasometers used by
van Marum and a collection of telephones used for demonstratory purposes.115
But while this was a temporary exhibition, a little over two decades later a series of -
permanent - museums of the history of science had been founded. In Oxford the Lewis Evans
Collection, assembled by the private collector Evans in the early 20th century and
subsequently donated to Oxford University, was made publicly accessible in 1924 and later
became the Museum of the History of Science.116 At about the same time, Andrea Corsini
founded the “Group for the Preservation of the National Scientific Heritage” in Italy, and by
1930 the Istituto di Storia della Scienza in Florence had established a permanent exhibition of
historical scientific instruments, the precursor to today’s Museo Galileo.117 In Leiden, the
Netherlands Historical Science Museum (Nederlandsch Historisch Natuurwetenschappelijk
Museum), precursor to what is currently known as the Museum Boerhaave, was opened to the
public in 1930, after some years of lobbying, primarily by Claude Auguste Crommelin, a
former laboratory assistant to Kamerlingh Onnes and director of the Leiden Instrumentmakers
School (Leidse Instrumentenmakers School). The museum’s initial collection consisted
112 On these developments in the Netherlands see: Willem Otterspeer, “Begin en context van het Museum
Boerhaave,” in 75 ja a r Museum Boerhaave (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 2006), 7.
113 On this see for example: Klaas van Berkel, Citaten uit het boek der natuur: opstellen over Nederlandse
wetenschapsgeschiedenis (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1998), 221-239.
1 Catalogus van de geschiedkundige tentoonstelling van natuur- en geneeskunde (Leiden: Sijthoff, 1907).
115 Ibid., 109 & 112.
116 Jim Bennett, “European Science Museums and the Museum Boerhaave,” in 75 Jaar Museum Boerhaave
(Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 2006), 77.
117 Paolo Galluzzi, “Introduction,” in Museo Galileo: a Guide to the Treasures o f the Collection (Firenze: Giunti,
2010), 5.