Glasgow's Riverside Transportation Museum and the Future of Museum Tech

The Oldest (Known) Bicycle in the World

Not all museums in the United Kingdom are the hodge-podge collections we’ve described in previous blogs. At least one, Glasgow’s Riverside Museum, is entirely and consistently dedicated to a single topic: transportation. Before visiting Glasgow, we didn’t know this museum existed. Had it not been for our hop-on, hop-off bus tour we might have been inclined to skip this museum, especially just having visited the phenomenal National Railway Museum in York only a week or so before. We’re glad we didn’t skip this museum.

This is one of the best museums in Europe, rightly designated so by whatever organization makes such designations (they are eager to let you know this on the hop-on, hop-off buses and you can’t miss the designation written across the entrance). The museum is dedicated to all mechanical means of transportation contrived by the mind of man, from the oldest known bicycle in the world to cars and ships of all sorts. And if you haven’t gotten your fill of trains (and who ever really does?) this museum has a respectable collection, making it an interesting bookend to the railway museum in York.

But it isn’t just the diverse collection of this museum that’s so impressive. Accompanying many of the displays and artifacts is the best multimedia reference tool we’ve ever seen. Most museums have an information card or placard near an exhibit describing what you’re looking at; the Riverside Transportation museum puts an entire library of information in large touchscreen kiosks at your finger tips. Tap one icon and you’re reading a description of the artifact or exhibit. Tap another and you can swipe through original photographs, drawings, and engineering diagrams of the item. Tap and swipe again and you’re watching videos or reading personal accounts and stories. It truly sets a high standard for any museum in the world to follow.