Sector pays tribute to Neil Cossons

The sector has been sharing memories of Neil Cossons, the influential former Science Museum director who died on 29 March.

Cossons, who was also a historian and industrial heritage expert, was the director of the Science Museum from 1986 until 2000. During his long career, he was the first director of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, director of the National Maritime Museum and chairman of English Heritage.

Ian Blatchford, the current director and chief executive of the Science Museum, said: “Neil had a profound impact on the Science Museum, ushering in an era of change and bringing a strong focus on effective interpretation for visitors, with interactivity at its heart. His legacy can be seen around the museum to this day, and I will be forever grateful for the steadfast friendship and wise counsel which Neil offered throughout my time at the museum.”

Cossons replaced Margaret Weston as the director of the Science Museum, joining shortly before the opening of the interactive gallery Launchpad.

Writing on the Science Museum’s website, curator Stewart Emmens said: “Cossons was keen to embrace changes taking hold in the wider museum sector, such as the move to a more open and audience-focused approach to developing exhibitions and galleries. An emphasis on effective interpretation for visitors – with interactivity and a variety of media used to achieve this – was central to Cossons’ philosophy as director, an approach guided by audience research on the most effective means of communicating science and technology to the public.

“Cossons proposed a new type of museum professional – whom he once described as ‘curator-interpreters’ – to deliver engaging future exhibitions, and while the name did not stick, the fruitful partnership between curatorial and interpretation teams is fundamental to the success of today’s galleries and exhibitions.”

After two years as a graduate trainee at Leicester Museum, Cossons worked at the Swindon Railway Museum before joining the Bristol Museum as curator of technology in 1964. Four years later, aged 29, he was appointed deputy director of Liverpool Museum, before becoming the first director of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in 1971.

Writing on LinkedIn, Andrew Lovett, the chief executive of the Black Country Living Museum, said Cossons was “an inspirational figure in the world of museums, heritage and engaging people in history”.

Steve Miller, the head of Norfolk Museums Service and president of the Museums Association (MA), wrote on LinkedIn: “Neil had such an impact on the museums and heritage sectors in so many ways. A visionary leader and a great advocate whose wit and tremendous knowledge will be long remembered. He will be greatly missed.”

Miller is also a former head of Ironbridge Gorge, which was recently taken over by the National Trust.

Also on LinkedIn, cultural heritage consultant Michael Day said: “Neil was the founding inspiration for Ironbridge, the independent museums movement and for many individuals. He appointed me to my first management post at Ironbridge in 1983 and I am forever grateful to him for the light he shone on what was possible.

“I saw him last at the ceremonial handover of Ironbridge to the National Trust in November. Though somewhat frail, he was still in sparkling form and much relieved that a great long-term future had been secured for the sites, collections and stories that he had done so much to preserve.”

Cossons was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1982 and knighted for services to museums and heritage in 1994. He was a fellow of the MA and a life fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.