‘An Effective Organ of Public Enlightenment’: The Role of Temporary Exhibitions in the Science Museum

Abstract

Between 1919 and 1984, temporary exhibitions (called special exhibitions) were a major feature of the Museum’s displays. They had been advocated by the Bell Report of 1911 as a ‘means of keeping the Museum in direct touch with the movements of the day,’ 1 and the first such exhibition, on aeronautics, took place in 1912. 2 As Mackintosh notes in his internally produced handbook, ‘Special Exhibitions at the Science Museum’: up to 1926 various exhibitions and celebrations of anniversaries were held, all on a fairly modest scale and in the galleries appropriate to the subject: considerable dislocation of the permanent collections was entailed, which sometimes evoked legitimate grumbling from the more studious and regular visitor. 3 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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