Pill box and contents

Pill box without a lid containing crystals.

This sample and pill box come from a 14-drawer cabinet found in the Herschel family home in the 1950s. The contents of this and a similar cabinet seem to suggest that they were used by successive generations of the family to store specimens, material and apparatus for carrying out experiments.

This is one of a set of pill boxes each containing a different chemical and/ or mineral sample presumably used by John F.W. Herschel and/ or his children (it may even have been used by John F.W. with his children) as the raw materials for experiments.

Object Details

ID: AST1030.39
Type: Cabinet contents
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Unknown
Date made: Unknown
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Herschel Collection
Measurements: Overall: 39 mm; Diameter: 48 mm
Parts: Cabinet