Welcome to UCL Museums & Collections
UCL's outstanding collections cover a wide variety of
disciplines, reflecting the range of the university's academic work.
Four collections - the UCL Art Museum, the Grant Museum, the Petrie Museum, and the Geology Collections - are open to the public. Other collections are primarily for teaching and research but can be seen and studied by appointment.
We support teaching and learning, undertake and support research and run a wide range of events and outreach programmes.
Upcoming events at UCL Museums & Collections
Recent blog posts
Conserve It! Part III – Reconstruction
Fri, 24 May 2013 11:28:03 +0000
This is the third installment of the Conserve it! blog series, written by a team of UCL conservation students who are working on four damaged objects from the Medical Physics Collection. Here Louise Stewart explains how they have gone about reconstructing the smashed tubes. Now that our background research is done and we’ve considered the [...]
Read more...Can museums improve your health and wellbeing?
Thu, 23 May 2013 11:25:39 +0000
For several years a team of researchers in UCL Museums have been investigating the role of touch and object handling in health and wellbeing. A three year research project, Heritage in Hospitals, showed that museum object handling had significant benefits on patients’ wellbeing by improving mental and physical functioning, providing a positive experience during the [...]
Read more...Working [in Museums] Wednesdays #1
Wed, 22 May 2013 09:30:53 +0000
Students and aspiring museum workers frequently ask about employment in the arts, so popular is this topic, I have now spoken about this at my old school and universities (to varying levels of success). I am in no way a specialist, nor even a veteran, of this discipline, in fact the only reason I seem [...]
Read more...Specimen of the Week: Week Eighty-Four
Mon, 20 May 2013 09:00:34 +0000
I am SO excited. I moved into a new flat last week and it has a balcony. That isn’t even the exciting part. Whilst I was flat hunting I narrowed the list down from 1230 to four by using a list of non-negotiable criteria (it’s good to know what you want in life), and then [...]
Read more...Tomb Raiders: Ancient Egypt in Modern Art
Fri, 17 May 2013 12:32:33 +0000
Guest blogger: Kholood Al-Fahad How can Ancient art be brought to life by contemporary art? Is there a connection between ancient and new? Tomb Raiders is the place were such questions should have an answer. Get inspired by the intelligent ideas of the nine artists from the Central Saint Martin School. In May 14th the [...]
Read more...Highlights
UCL's Flaxman Gallery, a rare surviving 19th century sculptural installation, and the innovative Octagon Gallery below are now open to the public after a bold transformation. Artist John Flaxman's plaster study 'St Michael Overcoming Satan' now stands on a glass plinth and the Octagon Gallery has radically changed with new cases, animations and interactive screens to display treasures from UCL's museums collections.
About the museums and collections
THE PETRIE MUSEUM OF EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY
About the museum:
Housing an estimated 80,000 objects, the Petrie Museum is one of the greatest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology in the world.
Website:
THE GRANT MUSEUM OF ZOOLOGY
About the museum:
Retaining an air of the avid Victorian collector, the museum contains cases packed full of skeletons, mounted animals and specimens preserved in fluid. Dating back to 1827, the museum covers the whole of the animal kingdom.
Website:
UCL ART MUSEUM
About the museum:
The UCL Art Museum was founded in 1847 with a gift of the sculpture models of John Flaxman. The Strang Print Room operates as a study centre and houses works on paper by artists including Dürer,Rembrandt, Turner and Constable.
You can visit the museum 1pm-5pm Monday to Friday. Click here for details.
Website:
THE GALTON COLLECTION
About the collection:
Comprising around 500 scientific instruments, papers, and personal memorabilia of Sir Francis Galton F.R.S. (1822-1911), this is a popular resource for researchers, schools, and those with an interest in the history of science.
The collection can only be visited by prior appointment with the curator. Click here for details.
Website:
INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY COLLECTIONS
About the collections:
These collections include fine prehistoric
ceramics and stone artefacts, as well as
collections of Classical Greek and Roman ceramics, archaeobotanical and
zooarchaeological material, minerals and Western Asiatic material.
One-off displays and
temporary exhibitions are open to the public weekdays during term time
between 9am and 5pm.
The other collections are available by
appointment.
Website:
GEOLOGY COLLECTIONS
About the collections:
The Geology Collections contain a wealth of rocks, minerals and fossils collected globally over the last 175 years. Highlights include the Johnston-Lavis volcanological collection, the Regional Planetary Image Facility, and the UK repository for NASA images and maps.
For the collections' opening times, click here.
Website:
THE ETHNOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS
About the collections:
The Ethnography Collections hold an enormous variety of objects exemplifying material culture, textiles and artefacts from all over the world.
The Collections are only open by prior appointment with the Curator; click here for more details.
Website:
THE SCIENCE COLLECTIONS
About the collections:
The Science Collections house the wealth of scientific apparatus, equipment and memorabilia pertaining to the various scientists and their innovative work that was conducted at UCL over the last two centuries.
The Collections are only open by prior appointment with the Curator; for more details, click here.
Website
JEREMY BENTHAM AUTO-ICON
About the Auto-Icon:
Jeremy Bentham sits at the end of the South Cloisters on campus. He is usually woken up around 8am, and put to sleep at 6pm, Monday – Friday. Special out of hours viewings can be arranged.
