VISITORS to a new exhibition are invited to step through a portal and journey through time.
Time Machines – the past, the future and how stories take us there, opens on Saturday at Durham University’s Palace Green Library, revealing how advances in science allowed authors like HG Wells to write about parallel universes, alternate histories and future worlds.
Caroline Szylowicz, of the University of Illinois, with an original manuscript of The Time Machine by HG Wells on display at the new Time Machines exhibition. Picture: TOM BANKS
The exhibition includes HG Wells’s original manuscript for The Time Machine – a book published in 1895, which remains one of the most important stories in the science fiction and time travel genres.
It is on loan from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Professor Simon James, head of department of English studies at Durham University, said: “The Time Machine is his most widely read book. It is wonderful to be able to display the manuscript here among items from the Durham collections, in what will be a really fun, as well as informative, exhibition.” The Time Machines exhibition unravels other stories which play with time, including some of the earliest time travel science fiction, dating from the late 19th century, and demonstrates how writers have used stories to help us make sense of time and our place within it.
The exhibiton is open from 10am to 5pm, Monday to Sunday, from Saturday to September 3 . An admission charge applies, which allows two additional visits. Discounted rates are available for groups of nine or more.
Admission charges apply.
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