The Science Museum, London has it has its origins in the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in Hyde Park in the huge glass building known as the Crystal Palace. In 1857, South Kensington Museum opened on the site of what is now Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1862 the Science collections move to separate buildings on Exhibition Road and in the 1880s a Science library is established, with a Science Collections director appointed in 1893.
In 1909, when the new buildings were opened, the title was confined to the Art Collections. The Science and Engineering Collections were finally separated administratively and the name 'Science Museum', in informal use since 1885, was officially adopted. It was on June 26th that year that the institutional reorganisation into two independent institutions was ratified and the title "Science Museum" was officially bestowed.
A change in the underlying philosophy of the Science Museum can be said to date from about 1960. The emphasis began to shift from technical education informed by historical exposition, to a more broadly-based policy of preservation of historical artefacts placed in their historical and social context.
The history of the Science Museum over the last 150 years has been one of continual change. The exhibition galleries are never static for long, as they have to reflect and comment on the increasing pace of change in science, technology,
industry and medicine. Even if this sometimes means the removal of some wellloved objects to store, we can be certain that some of their modern replacements will become cherished in turn.
Date
31st October - 7th November 1974
Scope and ContentA folder of copies of press cuttings relating to the handing over of the main hall of the National Railway Museum from British Rail to the Science Museum.
“British Railways” is the expression commonly used to describe the business run by the following legal entities:
• Railway Executive (1948 – 1952)
• British Transport Commission (1952 – 1963)
• British Railways Board (1963 – 1993)
Railways were nationalised on 1st January 1948 when the assets of the railways in Great Britain were vested in the British Transport Commission (BTC), a state-owned corporation created by the Transport Act 1947. Between 1948 and 1952 the business of operating the railways was carried on by the Railway Executive, a state-owned corporation, subsidiary to BTC. The Railway Executive was abolished in 1952 and BTC took over direct responsibility for the railways. Before 1948 there was no brand that was identified with the whole of the railways of Great Britain, only the separate brands of the Group companies, Southern, Great Western, London, Midland and Scottish and London and North Eastern, and London Transport. The railways were run under the corporate identity “British Railways” from 1948 by both the Railway Executive and BTC. The public manifestations of this were the words themselves on vehicles and premises, quasi-heraldic devices on locomotives (the so-called “cycling lion” followed by the “ferret and dartboard”) and the lozenge shape adopted (and clearly inspired by London Transport’s very similar logo) for station names.
When the nationalised transport industry was reorganised in 1963, BTC was itself abolished and a new statutory corporation created to run the railways. This was British Railways Board (BRB). The name most closely associated with the national railway system had now become part of the name of the corporate entity, (i.e. the legal person, entitled as a matter of law to own property, to enter into contracts, and to sue (or be sued) in the courts and be prosecuted for breaches of the criminal law) which owned the assets and business of the railways of Great Britain. As a result of the corporate rebranding carried out in 1965 the business name, or brand name (as it was now expressly recognised to be), was shortened to “British Rail”. However, BRB retained the full “British Railways” in its title until its eventual abolition under the provisions of the Transport Act 2000.
The National Railway Museum (NRM) was opened at Leeman Road in York in 1975. The 1968 Transport Act prompted British Railways (BR) to work with the Science Museum to develop a National Railway Museum to house BR's collection which was held at the Museum of British Transport in Clapham. The NRM's holdings also derived from the railway collections held by the Science Museum and the former York (Queen Street) Railway Museum.
The NRM's mission is aligned with the Science Museum Group (SMG)'s core strategic priorities to 'Grow ‘science capital’ in individuals and society... Grow our audiences and exceed their expectations... Sustain and grow our world-class collection.' The museum holds the ‘The National Collection of historical railway relics’, Britain’s largest single body of historic railway items to allow audiences to '...explore the huge impact of railways on Britain and the wider world.' It was the first national museum to be located outside London and has won European Museum of the Year on two occasions in 1990 and 2001.
The NRM is integrated into the SMG's governance structure and has an Advisory Board that advises the NRM's Director and the Board of Trustees of the Science Museum on its cultural offer. The NRM's first Director was Dr John Coiley, who served from 1974 to 1992, subsequently Andrew Dow, Andrew Scott, Steve Davies, Paul Kirkman and Judith McNicol have held the post.
The museum site has been extended on several occasions. In 1990, the Station Hall and the Peter Allen Building opened across Leeman Road in York’s former railway goods depot. The Great Hall underwent major structural works between 1990 and 1992. The former diesel depot adjacent to the Great Hall was added as a store and in 1999 this was rebuilt to become The Works, providing public access to collections stores, workshops and a viewing gallery overlooking York Station. From the 1980s onwards the NRM had a collections store at Foundry Lane in York, this closed in 2011 when the SMG opened a collections store at Wroughton, near Swindon. The site at Wroughton continues to function as the NRM's deep storage facility and is now known as the National Collections Centre.
The NRM has developed its academic credentials and research facilities over time. The Institute of Railway Studies was launched in 1994 as a joint venture between the NRM and the University of York. In June 2004, the Yorkshire Rail Academy was opened – a joint development between York College and the NRM to train rail engineering apprentices, it closed in 2014 after a rail industry partner, Viva Rail, ceased trading. The NRM's research centre, Search Engine, opened in 2008 with assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Higher Education Funding Council to provide enhanced access to the NRM's archive and library collections.
In 2004 Locomotion: the NRM at Shildon, County Durham, opened as a joint venture with local authority partners to preserve Shildon's railway heritage and display rail vehicles from the National Collection. The site includes historic structures associated with the Stockton & Darlington Railway and buildings that made up Shildon's earlier Timothy Hackworth Museum.
Born on 7th March 1926 in Oakridge, Gloucester, Margaret Kate Weston was the daughter of two headteachers, Charles and Margaret Weston. She attended Stroud Highschool before going on to attend the University of London to study mechanical and electrical engineering. Prior to this she gained useful engineering experience from a neighbour, Walter Gardiner, when she used a workshop and lathe to repair bicycles.
Following her graduation, she joined the General Electric Company (GEC) as an electrical engineer, becoming one of only 3 female apprentices in that year's intake of 300. Following studying electrical engineering at the College of Technology in Birmingham (now Aston University) she became a Chartered Electrical Engineer at the age of 28.
In 1955 she joined the Science Museum as Assistant Keeper of Electrical Engineering and Communications. In 1967 she was promoted to Keeper of the Department of Museum Services, being the first woman to be made Keeper in the museum’s history.
In 1973 Margaret Weston became the first female director of a British national museum when she was appointed as Director of the Science Museum, replacing Sir David Follet. On her first day she visited York to announce that it would become the home of the new National Railway Museum, the first national museum to be opened outside if London. She would also establish the National Museum of Photograph, Film and Television in Bradford (now known as the National Science and Media Museum), which opened on 16th June 1983. Both of these, along with the acquisition of the former Wroughton airfield which became the National Collection Centre, led to the development of the Science Museum beyond its site in London and led to the formation of the Science Museum Group. She was also involved in the expansion of the museum’s collection with the acquisition of Concorde 002 and the long-term loan of the Wellcome Collection. In 1984 she retired from the museum, although she would remain involved in the heritage sector as a volunteer.
Outside of the Science Museum Margaret Weston was involved in numerous other bodies including the Ancient Monuments Board of England, the 1851 Commission and the Museums and Galleries Commission as well as being an honorary fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. She would receive honorary degrees from Universities of Manchester, Salford, Aston, Bradford, Leeds, Loughborough, and the Open University. In 2018 she became a fellow of the Science Museum and also acted as a trustee of the Brooklands Museum, in Surrey, the Fleet Air Arm Museum, the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum and the Hunterian Museum (Royal College of Surgeons).
In 1979 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and on 12th January 2021 she died at the age of 94.
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