Hands-on knowledge – The new Collection of Scientific Instruments and Teaching Aids

The collection, newly founded in 2019, is the result of ETH Library’s archiving of scientific instruments and teaching aids from a diverse range of faculties, institutes and departments. The collection showcases academic knowledge production and mediation at ETH Zurich throughout the ages, featuring some objects which date back as far the founding era of the university. But more recent objects feature regularly too – most excitingly, even some of ETH Zurich’s own in-house developments.

A running inventory is kept of the scientific instruments, devices, models and teaching aids, which are made available to those interested in an E-Pics catalogue. What’s more, you can also consult the physical objects in the reading room on request. Collector’s items are also available for teaching or for loan to museums.

In the new E-Pics catalogue, you can already find a larger collection from the Institute of Aerodynamics (1932–1988), a collection of mathematical models, as well as two small collections from the Institute of High-Frequency Engineering (1942–1977) and the Physical Institute (1855–1974).

Other objects from the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, the Geobotanical Institute (Rübel Foundation), the Institute of Electronics as well as the Computer Science and Physics departments will be available to you – inventoried and uploaded on an ongoing basis – until mid-2021. The previous Collection of Astronomical Instruments has been integrated in the new Collection of Scientific Instruments and Teaching Aids.