The Museum's collections hold thousands of objects related to chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy, and other sciences. Instruments range from early American telescopes to lasers. Rare glassware and other artifacts from the laboratory of Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, are among the scientific treasures here. A Gilbert chemistry set of about 1937 and other objects testify to the pleasures of amateur science. Artifacts also help illuminate the social and political history of biology and the roles of women and minorities in science. The mathematics collection holds artifacts from slide rules and flash cards to code-breaking equipment. More than 1,000 models demonstrate some of the problems and principles of mathematics, and 80 abstract paintings by illustrator and cartoonist Crockett Johnson show his visual interpretations of mathematical theorems. |
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Selected Objects |
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AbioCor Total Artificial Heart
AbioCor Total Artificial Heart is the first electro-hydraulic heart implanted in a human. Approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for clinical trails, the AbioCor was implanted in ...
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Acoustical Dropping Sticks
This is a set of eight "dropping sticks" used to teach acoustics. It was made in Paris by the famous scientific instrument maker Rudolph Koenig, sometime between 1858 and 1902. ...
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Beckman DU Spectrophotometer
The Beckman DU spectrophotometer is perhaps the greatest single instrument of the postwar period. The original design dates from 1941, but the machine really became "the universal spectrophotometer" in the ...
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Chemical Balance
This chemical balance was made by Aaron Pollock of Boston. It was used in the laboratory of Ira Remsen (1846–1927), who became the first professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins ...
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Einstein's Brier Pipe
Albert Einstein, creator of the theory of relativity, Nobel Prize winner, and striver for world peace, is almost as well known for his physical appearance as for his epochal work ...
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Ferrel Tide Predictor
In 1872, the British physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) devised a machine to simulate mechanically the combination of periodic motions that produce tides. Inspired by this example, William Ferrel of ...
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Hartman's Planispheric Astrolabe
The astrolabe is an astronomical calculating device used from ancient times into the eighteenth century. Measuring the height of a star using the back of the instrument, and knowing the ...
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Matrass Flask
This flask, made of green glass, is properly called a "matrass." Part of a distillation apparatus, a matrass is a vessel with a round bottom and a long slender neck. ...
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Print of Experiment on a Bird in the Airpump
This is a mezzotint print, made in 1769, of Joseph Wright's oil painting, Experiment on a Bird in the Airpump. Completed in 1768, the original painting is now in the ...
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Ellen Harding Baker's "Solar System" Quilt
This "Solar System" quilt was made by Ellen Harding Baker of Cedar County, Iowa, in 1876. The wool top of this applique quilt is embellished with wool-fabric applique, wool braid, ...
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Stereoview of a Full Moon
Professor Henry Draper created the "Full Moon" stereoview in the 1860s. Published by Charles Bierstadt, it is one in a series of cards showing the moon in its different phases. ...
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Watson and Crick Metal Base Pair from Model
This is one of four brass templates illustrating the base pairings of adenine and thymine or cytosine and guanine, from Francis Crick's and James Watson's original model of the "double ...
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