Robert Gunther

[2] Gunther's father, Albert Günther, was Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum in London.

He joined the Oxford University Scientific Club in his first term at Magdalen and subsequently he took up a Fellowship at the college.

From 1923, Robert Gunther produced a fourteen volume set of books on Early Science in Oxford, his magnum opus, the last appearing in 1945.

[3] Between 1926 and 1930, Gunther founded the Museum of the History of Science in the Old Ashmolean building, with some difficulty: it is apparent that few of his contemporaries shared his passion for historical scientific instruments, and indeed the Early Science series makes barbed comments about the failure of predecessors in various august bodies to preserve such things.

[4] He was the son of Albert Günther, and his first wife Roberta Mitchell née McIntosh (1842–1869), sister of William M‘Intosh.