The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG) has been awarded the Society for the History of Technology’s prestigious 2006 Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits for its new Time Galleries. The four award winning galleries, called Time and Longitude, Time and Society, Time and Greenwich and Time for the Navy, tell the story of time and demonstrate how it has influenced society. The award was accepted by Curator of Timekeeping, David Rooney, and Exhibition Manager, Louise King, at the ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Dibner Committee recognised the ROG’s Time Galleries by highlighting that the Curators had created a ‘genuinely inspirational and engaging set of spaces, sensitively designed’. The Committee further explained that the Time Galleries ‘embody a superior balance of taste, sensitivity and innovation’.

David Rooney, Curator of Timekeeping said “Stories of time, longitude and navigation lie at the heart of the historic Royal Observatory site and it is great news that the Time Galleries have received the Dibner award. The rich history of the site is examined through our fantastic collections, which are the focus of the most comprehensive displays on the subject of time, anywhere in the world. Our collections include unique timekeepers and scientific instruments, many of which had never been on public display before, and the galleries include interactive elements, showing the human aspect of time, relating the stories to people and the personalities involved.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, with the 17th-century Queen’s House, is part of the National Maritime Museum, situated within the 200 acres of Greenwich Royal Park, and all are part of the UNESCO-inscribed Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. More information on the Museum is available at www.rmg.co.uk

2. The Royal Observatory is the home of time and the four compelling time galleries opened in February 2006 to tell the story of precision timekeeping. They included a new horology conservation studio where visitors can watch, for the first time, conservators at work on some of the world’s most historically significant and complex clocks. The Museum boasts the world’s largest collection of marine chronometers and more than a hundred are on show, many of which served onboard ships that fought, explored and traded across the world’s oceans. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the Observatory is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian and one of the most important historic scientific sites in the world. Since its founding in 1675, Greenwich has been at the centre of the measurement of time and space. Visitors can stand in both the eastern and western hemispheres simultaneously by placing their feet either side of the Prime Meridian line.

3. The Time galleries explain how time has influenced society:

• Time and Longitude explores the people and science that solved the world’s greatest navigational problem – the Longitude Problem.
• Time for the Navy presents over one hundred 19th- and 20th-century marine clocks from the Museum collections, in a room where every Royal Navy sea-going chronometer was serviced, repaired and tested between 1850 and 1940.
• Time and Society explores how we use time to make sense of the world.
• Time and Greenwich examines the introduction of ‘Greenwich Mean Time’ and its use to standardise time across the world.

4. In November 2005 the Museum announced it had raised the full £15 million needed to complete the ‘Time and Space’ project following a generous £3 million donation by Peter Harrison, after whom the spectacular new planetarium will be named when it opens in May 2007. The Museum is also grateful to the following supporters from their generous contributions to this important project: the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust, the Millennium Commission, the Wolfson Foundation, the Weller Settlement Fund, Accurist, and the National Physical Laboratory, along with private donors and public donations through the Museum’s Universal Appeal which was launched in May 2004.

5. The Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits was established in 1985, through the generosity of Bern Dibner, to recognise excellence in museums and museum exhibits that interpret the history of technology, industry and engineering to the general public. Previous winners include the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and the Museum of London.

Issued October 2006.

For further information or images please contact:
Sheryl Twigg, Claire Gilby or Lisa Pender
National Maritime Museum Press Office
Tel: 020 8312 6790/6732/6545 | 07903 547 284
Email: press@rmg.co.uk