Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Despite the current emphasis on meeting the needs of a 'target audi-
ence', the putative audience for the chemistry galleries did not play a ma-
jor role in shaping the content or design of these galleries until the last
chemistry gallery in 1999. The collections were taken as a given and the
displays were constructed to house them. To be sure, the curators have
always had an idea of the kind of people they were addressing, but in the
absence of detailed knowledge of the needs or interests of general visi-
tors, how did the curators gauge the needs of their audiences? Senior
members of staff were encouraged to mingle with visitors on the galler-
ies and ask them for their impression of the displays. To some extent
they must have also been influenced by the views of their family and
friends. Successive Directors, especially Sir Henry Lyons, ensured that
any new displays met the needs of the ordinary visitor as laid down by
the Bell Report. Here too, nonetheless, the constituency played an impor-
tant role. If the displays met with the approval of the constituency it was
assumed to be suitable for the public at large, not least because many of
its members were educators or public lecturers.
4.
The Image of Chemistry Presented by Science Museum Galleries
As we are looking specifically at the image of chemistry, I have deliber-
ately chosen not to examine industrial chemistry, plastics, and metal-
lurgy, all of which have been displayed with chemistry over the years,
although these subject areas have had their own galleries in more recent
times. However, precisely because they were displayed alongside chem-
istry and developed by the same curators, excluding these related sub-
jects will not make any significant difference to my analysis with the
marked exception of the 1986 chemical industry gallery, which intro-
duced a striking and original 'mythopoetic' approach into the Science
Museum. I have built up a picture of the different galleries by examining
the printed catalogues and photographs. The archival records are sparse,
but there are valuable comments in the annual reports for the earlier
galleries and for the more recent ones I have been able to obtain recol-
lections from the relevant curators. I would argue that the objects dis-
played on the galleries are central to understanding the image of chemis-
try the curators sought to communicate to visitors and their constituency.
