Last updated: 8 February 2022

About the research

Who owns the intellectual interpretation of an object once it has been added to a museum collection? Taking National Museums Scotland as a case study, this project investigates if an object maintains or changes its intellectual context once it moves from being a current item held at a university to a historic artefact in a museum. The project looks at four different collections: the Playfair Collection (1858), the Natural Philosophy Collection (1973), the Scottish universities collecting project (1985-87), and 'collecting for the future' (2017-2020).

Lead image: Projection polarimeter by Newton & Co. Part of the University of Edinburgh Natural Philosophy Collection.

Project title

Intellectual Properties: Transferring Science from Universities to National Museums Scotland

Student

Louis Volkmer

Project active

2017 - present

Funder

AHRC Scottish Cultural Heritage Consortium (SCHC) – Collaborative Doctoral Partnership

University Supervisors

Dr Niki Vermeulen - University of Edinburgh, and Dr Dominic Berry - London School of Economics

National Museums Scotland Supervisor

Dr Tacye Phillipson and Dr Sam AlbertiDepartment of Science & Technology

Research theme

Scotland's Material Heritage


Project contact

Contact list of staff members