ABSTRACT
The Science Museum in London is itself a specific kind of institution and therein lies some of its interest to an anthropologist: Why gather up all these artefacts? Why put 'science' on public display? How do those working in the Science Museum see their task? At the same time it has parallels with many other kinds of institution in which ethnographers of organizations might work. This chapter gives some answers to these questions through providing a case study based on ethnographic research which the author have carried out in the Science Museum. It highlights some of the information and insights an ethnographic and anthropological approach is able to provide, and discusses some of the difficulties of trying to analyse and write about such research. The chapter also initially provides some general background to the author's Science Museum research, its aims and context.
