A History Through Objects: research and innovation at the University

Explore our past exhibition, hosted in the Aston Webb Building between May 2022 and January 2025, to discover more about research at Birmingham and how it has made a difference in the world.

Since its origin, researchers at the University of Birmingham have created and discovered new things, improved people’s health and provided new ways of understanding the world and our place in it. From the sciences and the arts, their ground-breaking achievements have been recognised and honoured at national and international level, including the Nobel Prize.

Explore online

You can explore A History through Objects online. Wander around our 360 virtual exhibition which includes film and audio content.

How to use the virtual exhibition

The virtual exhibition is created on a platform called Matterport and can be navigated in the same way as others that use this platform.

After pressing play, click on the grey pin on the floor directly ahead of you. This will open the text and image contents for that location or object.
To move on to the next location or object you can either click on the arrows at the top bar of the image and text content window or use the arrows on your keypad.
You can click your cursor and drag to adjust your view at each location. You can also zoom in or out to get a closer look at an object by using the zoom function on your track pad or mouse.
To move about freely with the exhibition spaces double click your cursor anywhere in the room ahead of you. The icons at the bottom of the screen allow you to access the 'dollhouse' mode or the exhibition floorplan.
The coloured circles are mattertags where you can left click or tap on them to learn more about each section or access other content such as videos.
The exhibition is best enjoyed in full screen mode.