Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge

The Whipple Museum of the History of Science is situated within Cambridge University’s Downing Site, a globally renowned centre of scientific research. Founded by Robert Stewart Whipple, the former chairman of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, the museum is a quirky collection of historic instruments and contraptions.

The museum's holdings are particularly strong in material dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries, especially objects produced by English instrument makers, although the collection contains objects dating from the medieval period to the present day. Instruments of astronomy, navigation, surveying, drawing and calculating are well represented, as are sundials, mathematical instruments and early electrical apparatus.

The museum is partially housed within a Jacobean hall, built in 1628, and formerly the Cambridge Free School. The building has also housed the Perse School, and was a temporary home for the Fitzwilliam Museum collection, before it moved to its current location on Trumpington Street. A number of temporary exhibitions run at the Whipple Museum throughout the year, such as, for instance, the display of historic globes and mapping devices.