Current Temporary Exhibitions

Frankenstein to Einstein  : Literature and Science in the Nineteenth Century

English students at the University of Aberdeen have helped curate Frankenstein to Einstein, an exhibition exploring the complex links between science and literature in the nineteenth century.

"In the Victorian era the boundary between scientific writing and imaginative literature was not as clearly marked as it is now," explained Dr Hazel Hutchison, who co-ordinated the English course that led to the exhibition. "Scientific texts were often written in a poetic, imaginative way, while many fictional works took inspiration from contemporary science."

One focus of the exhibition is the work and fossil finds of Cromarty-born Hugh Miller (1802-1856) who became a household name across Scotland as the firebrand editor of the Evangelical newspaper The Witness, writing editorials on everything from politics and religion to popular science. Fossils he discovered and some of his written work feature in the Marischal exhibition. "Miller helped to popularise geology in texts such as his hugely popular work The Old Red Sandstone (1841) which featured vivid descriptions of fossils he found on his local beach," said Dr Hutchison.  "However, while many scientists saw geology as a challenge to religious beliefs, Miller interpreted his findings as proof of God's hand in creation."

The nature versus nurture debate was fervent in the 19th century and was reflected in popular literature such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). A second-edition of the book dating back to 1831 features in the exhibition.

"Because of the growth of the British Empire, there was also a particular interest in the differences between races, and in technologies of time, travel and communication such as railways, telegraphs and watches," added Dr Hutchison. She said putting together the exhibition had been a great learning experience for her students. "Getting up close to an object – whether it is a fossil, a telegraph receiver or a rare book – is always very different to hearing about it in a lecture. And now, other people will get the chance to see what we have been discovering."

The Frankenstein to Einstein exhibition is open now and runs until the 26 June 2008. Marischal Museum is located in Marischal College in the centre of Aberdeen. Entry to the museum is free and it is open from Monday to Friday, from 10:00am to 5:00pm, and on Sundays from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. For further information, please call (01224) 274301 or email museum@abdn.ac.uk

Frigg exhibition captures unique milestone in North Sea history

Frigg: Gas from the North Sea is the culmination of an 18-month project to document the Frigg field, initiated by TOTAL E&P UK which has funded the project together with the Norwegian joint venture Gassled. The aim was to create a unique resource for the industry and the public to enjoy both online and as a fixed exhibition. As the first international field to be exploited in Europe, Frigg became the model on which later collaborative agreements and operations were based.

The Frigg UK documentation project has been undertaken by the University of Aberdeen and has been the initiating factor for the Capturing the Energy initiative, a partnership between industry, government and heritage organisations to create an ongoing record of the achievements of the UK's offshore oil and gas history, for the industry, the wider public, and for future generations. On 13 March, industry leaders will join academics and representatives of heritage organisations for an afternoon seminar at Aberdeen's iconic Marischal College to celebrate two years of achievement for Capturing the Energy.

The exhibition has been created by specialist staff from the University's museums and archives in conjunction with TOTAL E&P UK Ltd. It draws on a variety of material, tying in with similar work at the Norwegian Petroleum Museum in Stavanger. The Frigg UK collection held at the University contains over 1,500 individual items, including engineering drawings, technical manuals, operational records, staff magazines, photographs, and film and video footage. Oral history recordings provide a uniquely personal view of how the arrival of North Sea gas shaped people's lives. In the seventies, the Frigg development represented a ground-breaking project, requiring great feats of engineering and political imagination to develop this remote, cross-border gas accumulation. TOTAL and all the people who have worked on the field are extremely proud of those achievements and are glad of this opportunity to preserve so many technical and personal records in the new Oil and Gas Archives at Aberdeen University. These records will provide a great resource for education and the general public to understand the initial phases of the development of the North Sea oil and gas industry.

The exhibition is online at and will run at Marischal Museum from 14 March until 27 June. More information about the documentation project is also online.