Comments: Research Opportunities
Musée des Arts et Métiers http://cugnot.cnam.fr:8000/BASIS/collec/internet/objet/SF/.
The Musée des Arts et Métiers is a part of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, which was created during the French revolution in 1794 by Abbé Henri Grégoire. The collections of the Museum range from the 18th century to the recent past and concern nearly all the technical subject areas: scientific instruments, materials, building technics, energy, transports and communication. The permanent exhibition rooms present around 2000 objects, and 80,000 more are stored in the reserves of Saint Denis in the suburbs of Paris. There is a comprehensive catalog of the collections made just before the renewing process of the Museum in 2000; this catalog is available in digital form and will be soon on the Internet [written in August 2014]. An old version of the catalog is already on line on the website of the museum: http://cugnot.cnam.fr:8000/BASIS/collec/internet/objet/SF/.
Web site
The website is very rich http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/. It contains much information about the exhibitions, the collections and the archives.
Documentation Center
A documentation center is available on the museum premises with a special space devoted to professionals http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/ressources-documentaires/.
There is also in CNAM an academic library with a specialized documentation fund on history of science and technology http://bibliotheque.cnam.fr/.
Photo library
The museum includes a center in charge of images (digitalized or not) of the collections and exhibitions http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/phototheque/.
CNUM
A special website for digitalized documents on history of science and technology has been created and called “le CNUM” (for CNAM Numerique) http://cnum.cnam.fr/. Here are presented 700 000 pages from 1000 old books of the CNAM collection
Research activities
The museum has special connections with a research laboratory of the CNAM: laboratoire HT2S ( histoire des technosciences en société)
http://recherche.cnam.fr/equipes/laboratoire-histoire-des-technosciences-en-societe-ht2s--657457.kjsp?RH=rec_equ/.
Serge Chambaud, September 2014