London's Finest
Artefacts and Art Collections

Collections of the Science Museum

The Science Museum is a “member of the big trio” on the Exhibition Road and one of London’s most visited museums as it is estimated to be visited by over 2.5 million people per year. Just like other London’s most prominent museums, the Science Museum started with a relatively modest collection when founded in the mid-19th century. Over the next one century and a half, however, its collection expanded to include more than 300,000 items, among which are also the Stephenson’s Rocket, James Watt beam engine, Apollo spacecraft, Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, and many other highly valuable pieces from history of science and technology.

Collections of the Science Museum are displayed in a number of galleries, with some being displayed permanently and others temporary. Though the Museum’s collections consist of a wide range of objects, they can broadly be divided into:

Highlights of the Science Museum Collections

It is difficult to pick a few from hundreds of thousands of objects but the Museum is especially proud of the previously mentioned Stephenson’s Rocket and other items from the Bennet Woodcroft and the Patent Office Museum collection, the Penn-Gaskell collection of aeronautics, the Percy Collection, The Roentgen Society collection of X-ray tubes and of course, the Henry Wellcome medical collection.