Presented by Dr Alison Morrison-Low, National Museums Scotland

Research into scientific instrument collections over the past forty years has shown that it is only relatively recently that instruments have been collected for antiquarian reasons. This lecture will discuss two long-dispersed collections owned by two Scottish noblemen, and attempt to characterise the reasons for their contents. Both collectors were politically powerful and wealthy, and lived most of their lives close to London. They were also interested in aspects of contemporary science.

They were: Archibald Campbell, 1st Earl of Ilay and 3rd Duke of Argyll (1682-1761), and his nephew, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792).

Alison Morrison-Low is a Research Associate at National Museums Scotland, and author of Making Scientific Instruments in the Industrial Revolution (2007), which won the Paul Bunge Prize for 2008. Together with Anita McConnell, she edited the final work of the late Brian Gee, Francis Watkins and the Dollond Telescope Patent Controversy (2014), which also won the Bunge Prize. Among other retirement projects, she is currently General Editor of the Scientific Instrument Commission’s series Scientific Instruments and Collections, published by Brill.

Programme:

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