Herschel 200

In 2022, with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we commemorated 200 years since the death of William Herschel.

Herschel 200 Exhibition

2022 was the 200-year anniversary of William Herschel’s death, which we marked with a brand new exhibition featuring some incredible artefacts on loan from the Royal Astronomical Society and Herschel Family Archive which showcased William’s achievements.

The exhibition also acknowledged the important contributions of those working with William, including his sister Caroline Herschel.

In the star vault we installed a light box created by artist Lynda Laird.  Her piece highlighted the stars identified by Caroline as part of her work to add to the Flamsteed Catalogue.

We will be digitising the Herschel 200 exhibition in due course; in the meantime you can read more about our exhibition and activities last year below.

Family Activities

During 2022’s school holidays we ran a programme of brand-new family-friendly activities and trails, which linked closely to the life and work of William Herschel, encouraging children and young people to find out more about William’s discoveries. Our activities enabled creativity, inspiration and excitement, actively connecting children with science and astronomy.

Astronomy – star and solar gazing sessions

We ran multiple new astronomy sessions with Bath Astronomers – a great opportunity to explore the skies, learn how to use a telescope and find out more about William and Caroline Herschel’s discoveries.

Future events can be found on our What’s On page.

Museum Trails and Walking Maps

We launched two new museum trails in 2022. We invited the public to vote for their favourite objects, which then featured in the new trails.

We also collaborated on two new Herschel-themed walking maps. Our first new walking map, of Bath, allows you to follow the Herschels’ footsteps around the city, taking in the sites of where the musical and astronomical family of Herschels lived and performed in Bath.

We worked with the Herschel Society to launch a second downloadable map, for anyone looking to visit UK locations connected to William Herschel. William spent part of his life in Bath, but not all; take a look at this map to see some of the other places that William travelled, worked and lived.

Slough Museum Explode
Slough Museum

Slough Museum Partnership

We joined forces with Slough Museum to celebrate the 200-year anniversary across our two locations.

Throughout 2022 Slough Museum ran a joint programme of workshops, activities and performances in Slough to celebrate the life and work of William Herschel, as well as the important role played by his sister Caroline Herschel.

Saint Laurence Church, where William Herschel was married and is now buried featured on our new downloadable Herschel trail. This was also one of the locations where artist Lynda Laird installed her artistic response to the work of Caroline Herschel.

Visit the Slough Museum website to find out more.

Working with schools and further education

As part of this project we worked with a local school to inspire creative outputs relating to the life and work of William Herschel.  Students from Bath Spa University also worked with us on curatorial content.

Did you know that we can run museum and classroom sessions for schools?  Visit our Learning Page to find out more.

Working with our local community centre

In 2022 we worked in partnership with Percy Community Centre and the University of Bath as well as several local libraries.

We ran a programme of family workshops and activities including planetarium shows, free to enjoy for the families that used these locations.

A new stonework commission

On Thursday 25 August 2022, on the date of the 200th anniversary of William Herschel’s death, we unveiled a new stonework for the garden.

This commemorates the anniversary and marks the location where the planet Uranus was discovered, also acting as a level platform for telescopes in the garden.

This aspect of our project enabled us to work with local artist-maker Iain Cotton and support an independent creator based in Bath.

Made possible with Heritage Fund