Whipple Museum of the History of Science

The Art of Deception, Fakes from the Whipple Collection 🕵️‍♀️🔎 Now open, The Art of Deception takes visitors into the dark underbelly of the world of collecting. How do fake artefacts end up in museums? Who made them, and why? And how do we detect them? From an intricately crafted “silver” globe to striking medical prints, the exhibition brings together over a hundred notorious objects—alongside the careful detective work that exposed them. 🔍Plus, test your eye in our fakes quiz! Look closely and use your judgement to decide which objects are genuine and which are forgeries. Can you foil the forgers? ✨ Plan your visit in 2026: 📍 Whipple Museum, Free School Lane, Cambridge 🗓 Open Monday–Friday, 12.30–4.30pm 📅 Next Saturday opening: 21 March, 10am–4pm #WhippleMuseum #CambridgeMuseums #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #forgeries

🚨 Museum Closure 🚨 The Whipple Museum will be closed to visitors from 20–22 May and 26–29 May due to University-wide industrial action over pay. We will also be closed for the May Bank Holiday on Monday 25 May. Our Little Stars morning session for early years will still take place on 21 May, 10:30am–12:30pm, we look forward to welcoming you. ✨ Plan your visit: 📍 Whipple Museum, Free School Lane, Cambridge 🗓 Monday–Friday, 12:30–4:30pm 📅 Next Saturday opening: 20 June, 10–4pm #WhippleMuseum #HistoryOfScience #CambridgeUniversity #cambridgemuseums

Join us this Monday for our free Whipple Highlights Tour ✨ What exactly is an orrery? Why does our clock chime 13? And why would anyone collect plaster horses’ teeth, green spectacles, or hundreds of pocket calculators? 👀 🐴 🔭 🌍 Discover the stories behind some of Whipple’s most intriguing objects on a guided tour through the collection in 10 highlights, from scientific instruments to surprising connections with some of Cambridge’s most famous names. 🕝 Monday 18 May, 2.30-3pm 🎟️ Book your free tickets via our website, or use the link in bio ✨ Plan your visit: 📍 Whipple Museum, Free School Lane, Cambridge 🗓 Mon–Fri, 12.30–4.30pm 📅 Next Saturday opening: 20 June, 10.00–4.00pm #WhippleMuseum #HistoryOfScience #CambridgeUniversity #astronomy #meterology

You can now find my Mushroom enamel pins at The @whipplemuseum of the History of Science 🍄 in Cambridge, UK 🇬🇧 This stunning and quirky museum is home to a range of Dr. Auzoux's pieces - who was an anatomist and naturalist, known for creating papier mache models for teaching 🌿 and he had a soft spot for mushrooms!!! The Whipple Museum has multiple rooms, each one filled with scientific apparatus, instruments and models - one of its most popular being a case of Horses Teeth 🐎 these models were used to depict a horses age when purchasing one back in the day ➡️ swipe for a peek of it! . 📍The Whipple Museum, Cambridge 🕜 Currently open Mon-Fri, soon to be open on Saturdays too . #whipplemuseum #cambridgeuniversity #thingstodouk #smallbusiness #enamelpinshop

When one of your favourite museums invites you to collaborate. What a year it’s been, responding to the incredible collection at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science and working with staff and visitors to create a takeover exhibition, The Parlour of Dr. Auzoux. There are so many facets to The Auzoux Project — far too much for one post, so I’ll share more in the coming days (weeks?) — but first, some thank yous. To curator Dr. Hannah Price @hannahlucyprice for the invitation; and everyone at @whipplemuseum , especially Annie James @annieljames , Morgan Bell @morgandporgs , Adam Priestley, Alison Giles, Steve Kruse, and all the museum volunteers. To all of the wonderful Whipple Scribble workshop participants who contributed to the colony of papier-mâché mushrooms. To graphic designer Sally Coleman @sally_coleman_designer , and Alec @pendred_printing (who never fails to save my bacon in a pinch!) And finally, thank you to Dr. Auzoux, whose extraordinary anatomical and botanical models inspired it all. 🍄 @camunivmuseums #theauzouxproject #papiermaché #installation #collaboration

Ottoman Turkish miniatures are on display in our new exhibition, The Art of Deception. We’re open tomorrow, have you had a chance to explore it yet? 🧐 The Art of Deception takes visitors into the dark underbelly of the world of collecting. How do fake artefacts end up in museums? Who made them, and why? And how do we detect them? From an intricately crafted “silver” globe to striking medical prints, the exhibition brings together over a hundred notorious objects—alongside the careful detective work that exposed them. 🔍Plus, test your eye in our fakes quiz! Look closely and use your judgement to decide which objects are genuine and which are forgeries. Can you foil the forgers? ✨ Plan your visit: 📍 Whipple Museum, Free School Lane, Cambridge 🗓 Mon–Fri, 12.30–4.30pm 📅 Next Saturday opening: 18 April, 10.00–4.00pm #WhippleMuseum #HistoryofScience #CambridgeUniversity #cambridge

Happy birthday, Dr Auzoux! 💫 Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux (1797-1880) was a French anatomist and papier-mâché pioneer who revolutionised science education with his teaching models that combined accuracy with accessibility. Born and raised in Normandy, Auzoux travelled to Paris for his medical training where he found there was a shortage of cadavers to study. This, combined with the reality that wax models were prohibitively expensive, led him to develop an alternative solution using lightweight and inexpensive materials. With his closely-guarded secret recipe, Auzoux began to create papier-mâché anatomy models that were designed to be taken apart, piece by piece, as if performing a dissection. His hard-wearing and affordable models quickly became popular across France, and beyond. Auzoux established a factory in his home village of Saint-Aubin-d’Écrosville, where he employed over 80 local women and men to hand-fabricate the models. Although he started with human anatomy, Auzoux’s model-making expanded to include animals, plants, and fungi. Today Auzoux’s meticulously detailed papier-mâché models are highly sought after for both their scientific and artistic merits, and can be seen in museums around the world, including @whipplemuseum in Cambridge. #theauzouxproject 📍The Whipple Museum of the History of Science Free School Lane, Cambridge UK, CB2 3RH Free entry, open 12.30-16.30 Monday - Friday, and selected Saturdays #auzoux #auzouxmodel #papiermache

Out and about this Good Friday? 🍄‍🟫 🌱 👁️ Step inside and discover The Art of Deception, or head upstairs to see our new installation.… THE PARLOUR OF DR AUZOUX. Draped forms, anatomical shapes, and clusters of fungi disrupt the Victorian Parlour in an installation inspired by 19th-century anatomist Dr Louis Auzoux. Auzoux’s meticulously detailed papier-mâché models helped transform scientific education, combining accuracy with accessibility. His models can be taken apart into labelled sections for the study of human anatomy, animals, and plants. Here, however, nature resists containment. Fungi sprout around the edges of the parlour, forming an organic network that unsettles the confidence and order of the Victorian age. Bringing together original Auzoux models from the Whipple collection with a commission of new work by artist Anna Brownsted, this installation explores the material possibilities of paper through suspended sculpture, zoetrope animation, and a colony of papier-mâché mushrooms co-created with Whipple Scribble, the Museum’s creative drawing group. Funded by UCM/ACE Collections in Action Part of the Cambridge Festival 2026 programme. 🍄‍🟫 🌱 👁️ ⭐️ Easter Opening Hours 2026 ⭐️ Open Good Friday (3 April): 12:30–16:30 Closed Easter Monday (6 April) ✨ Plan your visit 📍 Whipple Museum, Free School Lane, Cambridge 🗓 Mon–Fri, 12:30–16:30 📅 Next Saturday opening: 18 April, 10–16:00 #WhippleMuseum #HistoryOfScience #GoodFriday #drauzoux

Delighted to share outcomes from The Auzoux Project, my recent collaboration with the Whipple Museum of the History of Science @whipplemuseum @camunivmuseums Draped forms, anatomical shapes and clusters of fungi disrupt the Whipple’s Victorian parlour, in an installation responding to 19th-century anatomist and papier-mâché model-maker Dr Louis Auzoux. Bringing together original Auzoux models from the collection with a commission of new work that explores the material possibilities of paper through suspended sculpture, digital print, zoetrope animation, and a colony of papier-mâché mushrooms co-created with participants of public workshops at the museum. 🍄‍🟫Free entry, open 12.30-16.30 Monday - Friday and selected Saturdays (including today 28/03 for the Cambridge Festival!) @camunifestivals 📍Free School Lane, Cambridge UK, CB2 3RH #theauzouxproject #auzoux #auzouxmodel #papiermache

Meet the Researchers Day at the Whipple Museum ⭐️ Join us for a day of engaging talks with researchers from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, sharing fresh ideas and new perspectives. 📅 Saturday 21 March ⏰ 10am – 4pm 📍 Drop in anytime — all talks are free HPS Researcher Spotlight Fermenting Science: Sake, Soy Sauce and the Dutch Quest for Japanese Knowledge in the Tokugawa Era, with Postdoctoral Researcher Dr Maria Florutau How did Europeans discover soy sauce, sake, and Japanese tea culture when Japan was closed to the outside world? This talk explores how Dutch merchants and scientists, working via the Batavian Society in Java, became Europe’s only gateway to Japanese knowledge during the Tokugawa period — uncovering insights that reshaped European views of East Asia. 🕒 Maria’s talk starts at 2pm ✨ Drop in, discover something new, and meet the researchers behind the work Part of Cambridge Festival 2026 Plan your visit 📍 Whipple Museum, Free School Lane, Cambridge 🗓 Mon–Fri, 12.30–4.30pm 📅 Next Saturday opening: 21 March, 10am–4pm #WhippleMuseum #HistoryOfScience #CambridgeFestival #Japan #tokugawa

Meet the Researchers Day at the Whipple Museum ⭐️🇨🇳 Part of Cambridge Festival 2026 Join us for a day of engaging talks as researchers from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science share their latest work and ideas. 📅 Saturday 21 March ⏰ 10am – 4pm 📍 Drop in anytime — all talks are free HPS Researcher Spotlight Cross-cultural instruments: Chinese Sundials in the Whipple Museum and Other British Collections, with PhD researcher Zhiyu Chen Did you know the founder of the Whipple Museum acquired and donated four Chinese sundials? This talk offers a first look at similar instruments across Britain, exploring what they reveal about science, culture, and politics in the 18th and 19th centuries. 🕒 Zhiyu’s talk starts at 11.30am ✨ Come by, explore new ideas, and meet the researchers behind them Plan your visit 📍 Whipple Museum, Free School Lane, Cambridge 🗓 Mon–Fri, 12.30–4.30pm 📅 Next Saturday opening: 21 March, 10am–4pm #WhippleMuseum #HistoryOfScience #CambridgeFestival #ChineseSundials #Sundials

Meet the Researchers Day at the Whipple Museum 📚 Join us for a day of inspiring talks as researchers from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science share insights from their latest work. Part of Cambridge Festival 2026 📅 Saturday 21 March ⏰ 10am – 4pm 📍 Drop in anytime — all talks are free HPS Researcher Spotlight: PhD researcher Sandra Liwanowska Giants! A history of height, science and the Potsdam army Discover the remarkable story of Frederick William I’s towering soldiers, the Potsdam Giants. In 18th-century Europe, kings and scientists alike measured, displayed, and experimented on extraordinary bodies. This talk explores a world of ambition, spectacle, and power — and how curiosity about human height shaped ideas about beauty, heredity, and what it meant to be “perfect.” 🕒 Sandra’s talk begins at 3pm ✨ Come along, discover new ideas, and meet the researchers behind them. Plan your visit 📍 Whipple Museum, Free School Lane, Cambridge 🗓 Mon–Fri, 12.30–4.30pm 📅 Next Saturday opening: 21 March, 10am–4pm #WhippleMuseum #HistoryOfScience #CambridgeFestival #PotsdamGiants #PotsdamArmy