AN INTERACTIVE EXHIBIT OF ANTIQUE MICROSCOPES FROM THE 18TH & 19th
CENTURIES
ON EXHIBIT JULY 17 - OCTOBER 16, 2004
Take a closer look at things while exploring the 'new' exhibition at the Randall Museum
featuring 'old' microscopes. Antique Microscopes: "Magnificent Magnifiers" is an
interactive exhibit featuring beautiful antique microscopes from the collection of Technical
Instrument San Francisco. This collection of microscopes represents the state-of-the-art of
scientific instruments of the 18th and 19th centuries. Great scientists of the time like Charles
Darwin and Louis Pasteur put to use such scopes to discover new realms of living organisms,
unknown details of anatomy, undiscovered causes of disease and new medicines to treat
them. These magnificent microscopes are as wonderful to look at now as they were to look
through then.
The first microscopes were invented at the same time as the first telescopes. Nearly 400
years ago, when Galileo was pointing his telescope up, others were rearranging lenses and
pointing them down to make microscopes. The first microscopes revealed a new world at our
feet that was every bit as unknown and exciting as what the astronomers saw over our heads.
The Randall Museum has created two giant microscopes, magnified ten times their original
size, to demonstrate the two oldest types of microscope construction. One is a working model
of Anton van Leeuvenhoek's famous hand-held microscope featured in the exhibit. The other
is a nine-foot tall version of the more common "compound" microscope.

In addition, the sculpture Microscope, by Northern California artist Roy Forest, is on exhibit. This four foot

microscope sculpture was commissioned and previously exhibited at the S.F. International Airport.

Visitors are invited to get under these giants and see themselves as microscopic objects.
What: Antique Microscopes: "Magnificent Magnifiers"
An interactive exhibit featuring antique microscopes
of the 18th and 19th centuries
When: July 17- October 16, 2004
Museum Hours: Tuesdays - Saturdays, 10:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Where: Randall Museum
199 Museum Way (off Roosevelt, above Castro & 14th Streets), San Francisco
Cost: Admission is FREE
Info: 415.554.9600 or www.randallmuseum.org