F. Sherwood Taylor

Who was F. Sherwood Taylor?

Dr Frank Sherwood Taylor, PhD was a British historian of science, museum curator, and chemist who was Director of the Science Museum in London, England.

F. Sherwood Taylor was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, southern England and Lincoln College, Oxford. He then undertook a PhD at University College, London in the new Department of History and Method of Science.

He spent a period as a schoolmaster and then as a lecturer in chemistry at Queen Mary College, London. He was a founder member of the Philosophy of Science Group. He was also the founder editor of the Ambix journal, started in 1937. In 1940, he succeeded Robert Gunther as Curator of the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. Towards the end of his life, he was Director of the Science Museum from 1950 until his death in 1956. During this time, he delivered the 1952 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in London on How Science has Grown.