The Royal Society today announced the 15 successful projects that its Local Heroes scheme will fund. These grants go to small museums across the UK, from Orkney to Plymouth, to explore the lives and legacies of scientists with close connections to their communities.
I was fortunate to be on the judging panel and to see the richness, variety and imagination offered by all the applicants. The funding is only up to £3000, which is not much for museums that are often already suffering cuts from local authority budgets, but the imaginative projects have great potential to intrigue, inform and inspire.
In many cases the scheme has prompted museums to explore people, stories and collections that are not usually part of their offer, or even well known to their staff. The projects also promise the development of links with local communities, researchers, schools and more. This funding should, for many institutions, lead to lasting legacies, so long as our small and local museums continue to be supported.
Regular readers of mine will know that I have often expressed reservations about celebrating “heroes” in science, since such stories are untrue, unrealistic and unhelpful. (Note, for a start, how few women are included.) Happily, the Royal Society’s guidance indicated that the selected individual did not have to be “heroic” and the project could explore complex and contested legacies rather than simply being in celebratory mode. Several, wisely, chose to focus on groups or pairs.
While the project blurbs below, not surprisingly, sound positive enthusiastic, the more detailed descriptions the judging panel read show that there is room to question - and to see these as real people not idealisations on a pedestal. It was a really tough set of decisions, with helpfully different points of view coming across from the various members of the panel, but I hope that I can get to see at least a few of the following:
Adam Sedgwick’s Lakeland and Kendal Legacy
Kendal Museum, Cumbria
Kendal Museum is celebrating the work of Adam Sedgwick, one of the great geologists of the 19th century. His lasting legacy includes his surveys of the complicated geology of Lakeland – an important area for quarries and mining.
Bad Airs, Agues and Fevers – John Eliot Howard FRS, quinine and the battle against malaria
Bruce Castle Museum, Tottenham
John Eliot Howard FRS (1807-1883) pioneered work in the development of quinine against malaria. Bruce Castle Museum, close to Eliot Howard’s home, are creating a hands-on exhibition and will host community events to tell of the achievements of their local hero.
Dean R. Lomax – Making dreams reality
Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, Doncaster
Doncaster Museum & Art Gallery are celebrating a modern day local hero. Doncaster born 26 year old Dean Lomax is a palaeontologist and honorary scientist at the University of Manchester. The Museum is planning a series of events, including an opportunity for children to go on a fossil hunt with dinosaur expert Dean and get inspired by a career in science.
Bright Lights in the Borders
Berwick Museum and Art Gallery, Berwick upon Tweed
Berwick Museum and Art Gallery highlight the flourishing scientific community in the borders between Berwick & Edinburgh in the first half of the 19th century. The Museum will celebrate five eminent scientists of the region, including Mary Somerville: astronomer, mathematician and polymath.
Brilliant Bessie – Watercolour paintings by Bessie Downes
The Atkinson, Merseyside
A local Merseyside museum celebrates the artistic skill of Bessie Downes. Born in 1860, Bessie painted watercolours of botanical specimens, leaving an important record of the plant life present on the Sefton Coast by date and location.
Celebrating the life and work of Charles Clouston
Orkney Natural History Society Museum, Orkney
Born in Orkney in 1800, Rev. Dr Charles Clouston was a true local hero. He had broad scientific expertise in natural history, archaeology, geology and meteorology. Orkney Natural History Society is celebrating his life and work.
William Lyons, Tenby’s unlauded builder of a seminal shell collection
Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, Pembrokeshire
The oldest independent museum in Wales will share the story of William Lyons, whose collection of shells was of “great scientific and historic interest” both locally and nationally. Volunteers will work with the community and local schools to research and reveal Lyons life and work.
Hugh Bourne (1772-1852) Pioneer of Science for All
Englesea Brook Chapel and Museum, Crewe
A local chapel and museum in Englesea celebrates the legacy of Hugh Bourne, co-founder of the Primitive Methodist Church and self-educated railway pioneer and passionate educator.
James Watt – a New Dimension
McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock, Scotland
The McLean Museum in Greenock, Scotland celebrate inventor and engineer, James Watt (1736 – 1819). Famous for his leading role in the industrial revolution, in retirement Watt also invented machines for copying 3D sculptures and medallions. The McLean Museum will use modern 3D printing techniques to bring his legacy to life.
John Couch Adams – from Bodmin Moor to Neptune
Lawrence House Museum, Cornwall
Lawrence House Museum in Cornwall share the story of John Couch Adams, a local hero who co-discovered the existence of Neptune through calculations made whilst studying the moons around Uranus. Adams was also known for his interest in the mountains on the moon, comparing them to the hills of Bodmin Moor!
Joined by the water – observational legacies of citizen science
Hugh Miller’s Birthplace Cottage and Museum in association with Cromarty Courthouse Museum, Highland, Scotland
Two museums in the highlands delve into the work of Hugh Miller (1802-1856), citizen scientist and observational polymath, and George John Romanes (1848-1894), an early animal behaviour expert.
Monklands’ Heavy Metal Heroes
Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge, Scotland
Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life will tell the story of iron production in the area and celebrate the local pioneers of the industrial age and share the areas rich scientific history with schools across the region.
Plastic Fantastic
West Cheshire Museums, Cheshire
West Cheshire Museums unearths the story of polythene. The discovery made in the 1930s had a significant impact not just on the local area but worldwide. West Cheshire Museums project will share with the community the historic local significance of the discovery of polythene whilst exploring the contemporary environmental issues around the use of polythene and its significance in everyday life.
The Comet Man
Ballymoney Museum County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Ballymoney Museum in County Atrim tells the tale of comet man Andre Claude de la Crommelin (1865-1939). The Museum will host stargazing events and give the local community the opportunity to experience astronomy.
The Revd William Fox, Britain’s greatest dinosaur hunter
Dinosaur Isle Museum, Isle of Wight
The Dinosaur Isle Museum celebrate the forgotten story of the Reverend William Fox (1813-1881) – Victorian dinosaur hunter. The Museum will take visitors off the beaten track on self-guided tours around the area which will bring Fox’s extraordinary fossil hunting to life.
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