The amazing historical collections of didactic instruments of Portuguese secondary schools

Abstract

Some years ago, we tried to rescue to daylight some of the historic didactic instruments and apparatuses belonging to the oldest high schools in Portugal and the result was some astonishing perspective of what is usually part of school culture. In some cases, they can be dated back to the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Frequently they can be found displayed in the hallways or some dedicated rooms in the schools. What role do they have at present? Maybe they just remain as pieces of sociability and conversation, records from a scientific educative practice apprenticeship, testimonials of travelling knowledge, normalization standards or examples of the simplicity to display the concepts they were intended to. We will detail on some of those objects more related with chemistry practice. The website then created is being updated, but still remains as a true possibility to visit some of those historical instruments.