The Science Museum of the National Museum of Science and Industry (UK)

The origins of the Science Museum lie in the nineteenth-century movement to improve scientific and technical education. One of Britain's most significant contributions to industrialisation was the development of the steam railway in the nineteenth century. The extensive collections on railway history held by British Railways were transferred to the Science Museum as a result of the 1968 Transport Act. This led to the establishment of the National Railway Museum in York in 1975. A second initiative was the opening of the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford in 1983 which aims to study the art and the science of images. Collectively the three museums are known as the National Museum of Science & Industry. In 1976 the Science Museum acquired the valuable Wellcome Collection of over 125,000 objects. The Collection spans the history and practice of medicine from the ancient Greeks to present-day techniques, and is continually updated to map developments in biochemistry and genetics.