Virtual exhibition on the historical collections of the IES San Isidro

The collection on display is made up of just over 300 pieces and a voluminous documentary and bibliographic set. This is a selection of objects from the Institute's collections of historical materials, made up of pieces from the old Natural History and Physics and Chemistry cabinets, all of which are intended for teaching. Parallel to this work, different tasks were carried out such as scientific recognition and classification, review of old labeling, inventory and cataloging, photographing of pieces, digitization of cards, making new labels.

All this was possible, thanks to the collaboration of teachers, who aroused curiosity among their students so that they were interested in the protection, conservation and use of the historical-educational heritage of their institutes, and, also of institutions such as the UNED (department of History of Science and Education), the CEIMES project of the Community of Madrid, the Higher School of Restoration of Madrid, the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, the National Museum of Natural Sciences, the Geominero Museum and the National Library.

The main idea of ​​the exhibition is to take advantage of the staircase as a metaphor for the ascending path to knowledge and wisdom. The ascent to a higher level of knowledge through effort and improvement represented by the ladder. A path spiraling upward, never in a straight line, around an axis that points toward the sky.

The entrance is through the ground floor of the staircase giving way to a recreation of an old classroom. In this first spatial framework, records, exams and works of famous students, school materials such as books, manuals, documentary and bibliographic material related to the history of the Institute, books published by famous teachers are also exhibited. Given that it is a Historical Institute, the oldest in Madrid, the first topic to be discussed is the history of the Institute through the history of Education and the evolution of teaching in recent centuries, especially since the XNUMXth century. .

As you climb the ladder you advance through different branches of science, beginning with Geography and then we find Physics, Geology, Botany, Zoology and Medicine. On the top floor is the section dedicated to man, crowning the route, as the final point of the metaphor of the ascent towards wisdom, and, projecting the anthropocentric idea of ​​creation that has survived in textbooks until recently. . Inside a vintage display case, made of white wood, a male anatomical model of Doctor Auzoux.

For the exhibition assembly, a wide variety of showcases have been used, all of them reused. Some areas, with a nineteenth-century air, recall the old chambers of natural wonders typical of the nineteenth century.

A fundamental cabinet in teaching was that of Physics and Chemistry. The one at the San Isidro Institute was equipped at the time with hundreds of technical scientific devices. A good part of them were transferred, in deposit, for their care and restoration, to the Ministry of Culture in 1985. Later, in 1998, they became part of the funds of the recently created National Museum of Science and Technology.

At present, a small sample of the instruments that the Institute had is exhibited. Created with an educational purpose, all of them were used as didactic tools, for use by students and teachers. Its variety is enormous. From gramophones, microscopes, cameras, tape recorders, botamen, test tubes, epidoscopic glass plates and devices for their projection.

The Institute also had a rich cabinet for Natural History, covering the disciplines of zoology, biology, geology, agriculture, botany, paleontology, and prehistory. It is one of the most valuable educational scientific collections in the country. It was endowed with different species of vertebrate and invertebrate animals (mammals, amphibians, fish, reptiles, birds, crustaceans, mollusks, insects, ...) and vegetables such as plants, seeds; fossils, minerals and rocks; prehistoric lithic material (tools and utensils, such as bifaces, flint axes, ..). A whole display of different specimens well naturalized, well preserved in formaldehyde, skeletons, didactic models, contextualized by the collection of plates according to the classification of G. Cuvier from the XNUMXth century and other explanatory prints of the time.

A remarkable collection of approximately 800 naturalized animals stands out, several from the workshop of the Benedito Vives brothers. Many of these animals come from the Casa de Fieras and from expeditions and donations from individuals. Rare and exotic specimens are common, such as a Siamese goat, two Iberian lynxes, a platypus, an echidna, a collection of primates, all Iberian raptors and a wonderful collection of fish. Some hang on the wall, over a tree of life.

The collection of models made up of anatomical models made of papier-mâché, the work of the Frenchman, Doctor Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux (1797-1880), is one of the most important in Spain. Its internationally recognized models were exported around the world for XNUMX years. In it we can find a clastic man, a smaller boy, a salmon, a snake head, a complete snake, a silkworm, a beetle, a moth, a leech, a turkey, a human eye, some others. models of human organs and some thirty models of plants. 

Among these models, a life-scale clastic man stands out, acquired in the mid-nineteenth century. It is displayed in a vintage white wooden display case at the bottom of the stairs. These models are removable, and each of the parts is identified with a number and a label that describe the part represented.

The passage of time and the use of these pieces by generations of students have meant that some of them have come down to us deteriorated. With the start-up of the Museum, part of these materials could be exposed thanks to the cleaning and conservation work that, during recesses, the students carried out in the Biology and Geology laboratory.

But the restoration of old materials is an especially delicate task that requires the action of professionals. Collaboration with the School of Restoration of the Community of Madrid made it possible to restore some old prints and engravings. Through the CEIMES project, several naturalized animals were restored by a taxidermist. Also the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, has developed several campaigns in which they have recovered, for all, several models of Dr. Auzoux, the clastic man, a beetle, a bird and a hand. Today we continue to restore other works.