IYA2009 Museum Collection

21 January 2010

IYA2009 Museum Collection

Under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union and the Official IYA2009 Collection Curator, Science Museum in London, UK.

148 countries. Thousands of people. Events ranging from backyard observing to global projects. Posters, stamps, coins, calendars, T-shirts, badges, dedicated books and movies, etc. The participants of IYA2009 produced a huge amount of promotional and outreach material, much of it carrying the distinctive IYA2009 logo.

The International Astronomical Union and the official IYA2009 Collection Curator, Science Museum in London, UK would like to collect a sample of this material as a museum collection of the fantastic activities carried out around the world in 2009, showing the different ways that the National Nodes celebrated astronomy. Sample collections will be kept by the Science Museum in London.

At the Science Museum, the material will form part of its permanent collections. The Science Museum is one of the world’s leading science and technology museums, with over 200,000 objects from around the world. Highlights of its astronomy collections include a first edition of Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus, 1543; the six-foot mirror from the Great Rosse Telescope, 1845; and parts of the radio telescope array used by Jocelyn Bell in the discovery of pulsars, 1967. As part of the permanent collections, the IYA2009 material will be available to future generations for historical studies, exhibitions, outreach and education projects.

If you would like to donate something, please email iya2009@eso.org and send us back the following information:

Brief description (e.g.:books, stamps, etc.):_____________________
- Who made it? (e.g. designer, printer etc):_____________________
- Where was it made?________________________________
- When was it made?____________________________________
- What was it used for?________________________________________
Please attach some photographs to help us identify items (Note: It’s very helpful if you can provide us with a digital photo (it doesn’t have to be professional quality)
Weight: _____ grams
Size:____________________ (Please note that we may not be able to accept very large material, as it’s difficult to store.)
What is it made of:____________________________________________________

( the more detail you can give us about what things are made of, the better we will be able to preserve them for the future. Many modern materials are actually harder to take care of than older ones!)

(Note: It’s important we know who to contact if we want to reproduce photographs of the material in catalogues, on websites, etc. Or, if you are happy to assign us permissions now, that would save everyone time in the future.)

Important note: We may not be able to accept all offers, as there has been so much produced over the last year. But we will do our best to ensure that we select a good representation of all the different types of activities carried out all over the world. Please don’t send the material, just the brief description, we will contact you to arrange the shipping of the material.

Deadline for submissions: 28 February 2010

More information:

Pedro Russo

IYA2009 Coordinator

ESO ePOD, Garching, Germany

Tel: +49 89 320 06 195

E-mail: iya2009@eso.org

Alison Boyle

Curator, Astronomy & Modern Physics

The Science Museum

Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DD

London, UK