Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Science museum in Cambridge, United States

The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments is a science museum on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It holds telescopes, microscopes, measuring devices, and other tools spanning several centuries of scientific work.

Harvard began gathering scientific instruments in 1672 for teaching and research, making this one of the oldest collections of its kind in North America. The formal museum was established in 1950 to bring these objects together under one roof.

Many of the instruments on display were used in Harvard classrooms, so you can see how students once learned astronomy, mathematics, and physics by handling real tools. Some objects still carry the marks left by the people who used them.

The museum sits in the heart of the Harvard campus and is easy to reach on foot if you are already in Cambridge. Allow enough time to walk through slowly, as there is a lot to take in and the objects reward a closer look.

Many of the instruments in the collection still work today, even though some are hundreds of years old. This says a great deal about how carefully early makers built tools meant to measure and observe with precision.

• Location: Cambridge
• Inception: 1950
• Part of: Harvard Museums of Science and Culture
• Address: 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
• Phone: +(617)4952779
• Website: https://chsi.harvard.edu
• GPS coordinates: 42.37650,-71.11610
• Latest update: March 3, 2026 10:08