Emily Akkermans

Emily Akkermans is Curator of Time at Royal Museums Greenwich. She manages the horology collection, which has a unique relationship to the history of the Royal Observatory and close links to astronomy, navigation, science and society. After studying horology at The Vakschool in Schoonhoven, she specialised in the restoration of antique clocks during an apprenticeship in Breda, the Netherlands. She then completed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Conservation and Restoration at the University of Antwerp, focusing on conservation techniques specific to metal objects.

After graduating, Emily moved to London to take up an internship in metals conservation at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. She participated in an AHRC-funded doctoral partnership between the National Maritime Museum and the University of Edinburgh, on a project that combined maritime history, horology, scientific instruments, and history of science and technology. Her final PhD thesis looked at the ways in which chronometers were used on board early nineteenth-century voyages of exploration and how they relate to other navigational practices.