Lenses, telescopes, microscopes

The Museum of the History of Science houses an unrivalled collection of early scientific instruments in the world’s oldest surviving purpose-built museum building, the Old Ashmolean on Broad Street, Oxford. We are both a department of the University of Oxford and an active public museum, offering a programme of family-friendly events, gallery tours, table talks and much more, along with taught sessions for schools. For those unable to come to Oxford we produce online versions of our exhibitions, along with standalone online resources and a web version of our collections database. For the latest additions to this site you can subscribe to our newsfeed.