Three Small Museums

Not to be derailed, here are photographs from three small museums in Oxford, the Museum of the History of Science, Natural History Museum, and the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments.

Two generations of lighting in a the fabulous stairway of the Science Museum

Beautifully painted scope

I'm told they actually play these from time to time. Click to enlarge the pics, btw

Globes

Childsplay: I think that might be Walton and Algernon there.

Christopher Wren's Crest

The area surrounding the Museum of the History of Science is very beautiful. I snapped a picture of this young man walking in front of the Sheldonian, which is also where we sat to eat our cupcakes on the day of the Chocolate Fair (a.k.a. Cupcake Day).

If I get back to Oxford I'd like to see both the Ashmolean and the Natural History Museums again. 

The building of the Natural History Museum alone is worth visiting

But there's also this guy

How appropriate

I could looks at rocks all day

 Tucked into a side room in the Music Faculty building, the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments is actually an amazing chance to get about as close as you will ever be allowed to in a museum to some beautiful 17th century instruments.

I guess you can tell I have a bias towards keyboard insturments

And now I will recall a very old joke which was posted on a plaque explaining the origin of one of the instruments:

According to George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, 'The man hath more music than honesty and is as famous for marring of virginity as he is for fingering of organs and virginals.'