The Whipple Museum will be closed to visitors on 21–22 April and 30 April–1 May 2026 due to University-wide industrial action over pay.
Our Little Stars morning session for early years will still take place on the 21 April, 10.30-12.30pm.
Easter Opening Hours 2026 ⭐
Open on Good Friday 3 April: 12:30–16:30
Closed: Saturday 4 April – Monday 6 April
We're hiring! Inclusion Assistant (Fixed Term). Text laid on top of a photograph of hands holding a book in front of sensory toys, light boxes and beanbags at a Disability Friendly Opening.
We're hiring! 📢 Join our team as Inclusion Assistant.
Help us to ensure as many people as possible can access, enjoy & benefit from our Museums & Garden. This role provides crucial support to plan, deliver & evaluate our work.
Find out more & apply: museums.cam.ac.uk/opportunities
🗓 21 April
Fabulous photos from yesterday’s #IWD lecture for Cambridge Uni #HPS at the @whipplemuseum.bsky.social …
I love the maths on the blackboards behind me, but who knew I gesticulate so much when I talk!!
Access Update
The Museum’s lift has served us well for over fifteen years and is now due for replacement. From February–April 26, the lift will be out of service while these essential works are carried out.
We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding during this period.
Can you make a fake? 🕵️♂️ 🔍
Looking for a half-term activity? Put your detective skills to the test in our new exhibition The Art of Deception, all about the curious world of fake scientific instruments.
📅 Monday 16 February
⏰ 1–4pm (drop-in)
📍 Meet in the Learning Gallery
Join us this Saturday and be among the first to explore our new exhibition, The Art of Deception. ✨🔎
The Art of Deception reveals the hidden world of forged scientific instruments, showing how fake artefacts have fooled collectors and experts from the Middle Ages to today.
Out to the Whipple Library @whipplemuseum.bsky.social as part of Open Cambridge for '500 years of science in print' 📚
Thank you to Jack & Liz from the #Library for showing, explaining & allowing us to touch (only some) some of the libraries absolute treasure 📜
#science #archive #printing #knowledge
Whipple Scribble this Thursday! Sketch or just unwind with a friend at our after-hours drawing session. ✏️
Thu 18 Sept, 5:30–7:30pm
📍 Kick off with a optional intro tour at 5:30pm
🎟 Free, booking essential.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whipple-sc...
✨ 1618 Day, Saturday 20 Sept, 10–4pm ✨
Step back into the 17th century and discover the stories of our beautiful Jacobean building (once Cambridge’s Free School). Explore historic instruments, uncover hidden corners of the museum, and enjoy family activities, curator talks, and special tours.
✏️ After-hours sketching at the Whipple Museum
Thu 18 Sept, 5:30–7:30pm
Sketch among telescopes, globes & centuries-old instruments in Cambridge’s history of science museum.
Free, all welcome! Optional 20-min intro tour at 5:30pm! ✨
Booking essential: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whipple-sc...
🔍 Whipple Highlights Tour
Wed 13 Aug, 1pm and Thur 21 Aug, 3:30pm
What is an orrery? Why does the clock chime 13? And what’s with the green specs and horses’ teeth? Explore the Whipple in 10 objects!
Get your tickets here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whipple-hi...
We’re open tomorrow—here’s what’s on! ⭐️
🌈 Bridging Binaries Tour: LGBTQ+ History of Science
🕜 1:30pm | 🎟 Free (book via website)
🔬 Curator’s Talk: Physics & Glass
🕝 2:30pm | 🎟 Free, no booking needed – just meet us at the front desk
🔍 Whipple Highlights Tour
📅 Sat 16 Aug, 10:30am, Free
What is an orrery? Why does the clock chime 13? And what’s with the green specs and horses’ teeth? Explore the Whipple in 10 objects—curious artefacts, big scientific ideas, and famous Cambridge connections.
www.eventbrite.com/e/whipple-hi...
Whipple Musuem, Cambridge
H is for the History of Science – no better place than Cambridge if you have a passion for HoS. Whipple Museum, Hawking, Newton (we’ll get to that)…
#HistoryOfScience #WhippleMuseum @whipplemuseum.bsky.social
We’re open this Saturday – and there’s something new to see! 👀
Explore Human Body in the Learning Gallery: from electric nerve zappers to vitamin C syrup jars, an ivory eye, and a full papier-mâché person! 🧠⚡️
📍 Free School Lane, Cambridge
10am - 4pm
🎟 Free entry!
✨ Physics & Glass ✨
Now on at the Whipple Museum, Physics & Glass is a tribute to the art of the scientific glassblower. Glass has been one of the most important materials in the history of physics, and this display highlights some of the most intricate pieces in the Whipple’s collection.
After-hours sketching at the Whipple Museum
Thursday 8 May, 5.30-7.30pm
Free!
Ever fancied sketching among telescopes, globes, and ancient scientific instruments? Step into Cambridge University's home for the history of science for a relaxed, creative evening.
www.eventbrite.com/e/whipple-sc...
Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Museum Tour, this Wednesday! ⭐️📣
We’re thrilled to announce the return of the Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Tours at the Whipple Museum.
📍 Every Wednesday, 2.30pm.
Tours are aimed at an adult audience.
Book your FREE tickets our website.
Young visitor using a red telescope in the Learning Gallery.
This Saturday get hands-on with creative activities that will help shape our new Learning Gallery installation—join us for Lightworks! 🎨🔭
🎨 Lightworks Workshop: Exploring Light, Colour & Lenses
🔎 Led by artist James Tunnard
📅 15 March
⏰ Drop in between 10–12pm & 1–3pm
💫 Free
📸 My Linh Le for UCM
📖What kinds of scientific instruments were used around the turn of the nineteenth century in Greece, then a province of the Ottoman Empire? Artemis Yagou (Deutsches Museum) outlines the uses of scientific instruments and the associated emerging practices and mentalities in Greece.
What’s On at the Whipple Museum this February Half Term? 🖼 🔦 🌟
We’re taking part in #TwilightAtTheMuseums with Cambridge University Museums!
Grab your torch and explore our collections after dark with our space-themed family trail, Space Explorers. 🔭🪐☄️
Wednesday 19 Feb, 5-7pm.
Free, drop-in.
A box of microscopic slides. Very thin little drawers with little handles, each drawer contains a couple of slides
Spherical equinocial sundial by Hans Volmar, German, 18th century Wh.O660 Compound microscope by Edmund Culpeper, English, circa 1735 Whipple was particularly interested in the early history of the microscope, collecting nearly 200 examples from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Astrolabe Persian, signed M. Akhbar 1236 AH (1820 AD) Wh.0599
Just realised that our amazing Whipple Museum of History of Science is on Bluesky. Follow @whipplemuseum.bsky.social for more #HistSci, #HistMed, #SciArt, broken scientific instruments in Cambridge, and more! 📜 🗃️
📣🌟 Exhibition Talk 📣 🌟
The Cavendish Laboratory and the Birth of the Atomic Age.
Meet the remarkable scientific community behind the Cavendish Laboratory’s astonishing physics in this talk with Whipple Museum curator Dr Hannah Price.
Free, no need to book.
Saturday, 15 February, 2025 - 2pm
@annaalexandrova.bsky.social we're here! 😀
A skeleton of a dodo in a display cabinet
An Iguanodon skeleton replica on its hind legs in a museum
A gold old fashioned microscope in a glass cabinet
A blue plaque crediting the discovery of the double helix to Francis Crick and James Watson. There is graffiti on the bottom saying Franklin
Went on a 'science museum crawl' around Cambridge (UK)! Here are some highlights!
📍University Museum of Zoology
📍 Whipple Museum of the History of Science
📍Sedwick Museum of Earth Science
#museums 🐡 🧪
Great exhibition about a significant moment in history! — Whipple Museum in Cambridge.
Pinboard exhibition display from the exhibition on The Cavendish Lab - done as a way to exhibit the kind of collaboration and culture that existed around the lab, and made its journey from newly founded, scorned upon, “practical” space, towards a world-renowned site of scientific excellence possible.
A cyclotron from the cavendish - and early form of particle accelerator, used to accelerate electrons and similarly sized particles.
Terrestrial globe from 1690
New acquisition: a Spanish portable sundial, which has been moderated by someone to work in the southern hemisphere, and inscribed with useful coordinates traced along the west coast of South America, targeting, in particular, sites of relevant to Spanish extractivist imperialism, i.e. ports used for exporting raw materials and other goods.
And we’re back on: 1st term day included a tour of the Whipple Museum✨ organised by the #STS Cambridge Network (SCaN)
We got an intricate story on networks of knowledge underlying the discovery of 🧬, learnt about the Cavendish lab, saw the Globe Room, AND an exciting new acquisition (see ALT) #hps