Microscopes

conservation george III microscope MHS Inventory No. 35086

The History of Science Museum houses one of the most outstanding collections of historic microscopes, going back to not long after the invention of the microscope in the 17th century. The Museum also has many microscopes from the Royal Microscopical Society, including some 19th-century instruments which, thanks to the work of Joseph Jackson Lister (1786–1869), were free from optical aberrations, making the microscope a powerful device with many scientific and medical applications.