Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.
History is littered with hundreds of conflicts over the future of a community, group, location or business that were "resolved" when one of the parties stepped ahead and destroyed what was there. With the original point of contention destroyed, the debates would fall to the wayside. Archive Team believes that by duplicated condemned data, the conversation and debate can continue, as well as the richness and insight gained by keeping the materials. Our projects have ranged in size from a single volunteer downloading the data to a small-but-critical site, to over 100 volunteers stepping forward to acquire terabytes of user-created data to save for future generations.
The main site for Archive Team is at archiveteam.org and contains up to the date information on various projects, manifestos, plans and walkthroughs.
This collection contains the output of many Archive Team projects, both ongoing and completed. Thanks to the generous providing of disk space by the Internet Archive, multi-terabyte datasets can be made available, as well as in use by the Wayback Machine, providing a path back to lost websites and work.
Our collection has grown to the point of having sub-collections for the type of data we acquire. If you are seeking to browse the contents of these collections, the Wayback Machine is the best first stop. Otherwise, you are free to dig into the stacks to see what you may find.
The Archive Team Panic Downloads are full pulldowns of currently extant websites, meant to serve as emergency backups for needed sites that are in danger of closing, or which will be missed dearly if suddenly lost due to hard drive crashes or server failures.
We aim to inspire visitors with award-winning exhibitions, iconic objects and stories of incredible scientific achievement.
The Science Museum’s world-class collection forms an enduring record of scientific, technological and medical advancement from across the globe.
Who we are
Below is a timeline of key events in our history. For further information about the museum’s early years and development, download A Brief History of the Science Museum (PDF).
Entrance to the Patent Museum, 1863.
1857—South Kensington Museum (SKM) opens on the site of what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum. Premises also host The Patent Office Museum, a collection of contemporary and historical machinery.
1862—Science collections move to separate buildings on Exhibition Road.
1883—Contents of Patent Office Museum, including Puffing Billy and Stephenson’s Rocket, formally transferred to SKM.
1880s—Science library established.
1893—Science Collections director appointed.
1909—SKM’s art collections renamed ‘The Victoria and Albert Museum’. Science and Engineering Collections separated administratively and the name ‘Science Museum’ officially adopted.
1913—Work begins on the East Block in 1913 but, owing to the First World War, isn’t fully completed until 1928.
1931—‘Children’s Gallery’ opens in December 1931, indicating an organisational shift in placing needs of the ‘ordinary visitor’ ahead of those of specialists.
1949—Buildings from 1862 demolished to construct ground floor of the Centre Block, in order to house Science Exhibition of the Festival of Britain 1951. Centre Block galleries progressively open from top floor downwards between 1963 and 1969.
1986—Original Launch Pad opens.
1975—National Railway Museum opens in York.
1983—National Museum of Photography (now the National Science and Media Museum) opens in Bradford.
1979—Wroughton airfield, near Swindon, acquired both for storage and for collections of larger full-size objects (such as aeroplanes).
1984—The phrase ‘National Museum of Science and Industry’ adopted as corporate name of the entire institution. Management devolved from direct Civil Service control to administration by a Board of Trustees.
2000—Wellcome Wing opened by HM The Queen.
Professor Russell G Foster CBE FRS
Professor of Circadian Neuroscience and Director of the Sleep and Circadian Institute (SCNi), University of Oxford
Dr Hannah Fry
Associate Professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London
Professor Ajit Lalvani
Chair of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London
Dr Jane Atkinson CBE
Engineering and Automation Executive Director, Bilfinger UK Limited
The Rt Hon Lord Kitchin (David)
Justice, UK Supreme Court
Dr Lucie Green
Mullard Space Science Laboratory
Sir Paul Nurse (Deputy Chair)
Geneticist and Cell Biologist, The Francis Crick Institute
Professor Simon J Schaffer
Department of History & Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
Dr Robert Parker Csci Cchem FRSC
Ambassador to Europe and the Commonwealth, Royal Society of Chemistry
Professor Chris Rapley CBE
Professor of Climate Science, University College London
As the world’s leading group of science museums, we share our unparalleled collection—spanning science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine—with over five million visitors each year.
Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.
