Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
tion to its development, especially since the early eighteenth century. The
gallery demonstrated the value of chemistry for our growing understand-
ing of life's mechanisms, especially by the determination of increasingly
complex chemical and biochemical structures. It used analytical appara-
tus and chemical balances to illustrate the importance of precise meas-
urement. The overall impression was that the practice of chemistry re-
quired intricate skills from early nineteenth-century blowpipes to the
latest electron diffraction. It thus promoted chemistry both as an intellec-
tual challenge and a highly skilled craft rather than concentrating on the
benefits of chemistry to the public at large - this task was undertaken,
insofar as it was addressed, by the neighboring industrial chemistry
gallery.
4.4 'Chemistry of Everyday Life', 1999
In 1999, the three Chemistry Galleries (Galleries 41-43) were cleared
and replaced by a new Chemistry Gallery on the eastern side of Gallery
41. This was a much smaller gallery, with only 13% of the original
space. The gallery was developed by Senior Curator Peter Morris. There
was no direct sponsorship for this gallery but it was indirectly sponsored
by the Analytical Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) as it
provided a setting for three interactives which had been developed by the
RSC in collaboration with the museum. The space was also the home for
two large molecular models, including the famous 'forest of rods' model
of myoglobin, that had come from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology
in Cambridge which was another indirect influence on the gallery. The
constituency, as before, was mainly leading chemists and biochemists,
and historians of chemistry. Part of the new gallery had been a temporary
exhibition ('New for Old') a year earlier based on a close collaboration
with scientific instrument suppliers. The collaboration continued while
the gallery was under development, so this sector was again part of the
constituency. In addition, however, the needs of the gallery's audience
were taken into account using the results of visitor surveys carried out by
the museum's audience research unit.
The title of the gallery was 'The Chemistry of Everyday Life' and its
goal was to show the contribution of chemistry to everyday life, specifi-
