Introduction

This essay is an introduction to an Isis Focus section on the social and scientific relevance of history of science museums: “Why Science Museums Matter: History of Science in Museums in the Twenty-First Century.” Using the history of Museum Boerhaave, the Dutch National Museum for the History of Science and Medicine, as a guideline, the essay shows that over the course of time addressing a variety of audiences became a major worry for science museums, which also had to bridge a widening gap between popular views on history of science and those developed by professional historians of science

Bridge (graph theory · Epistemology · History of science · Media studies · Political science · Relevance (law · Section (typography · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · History · History of Science and Natural History · Law · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Philosophy · Philosophy, History, and Historiography