Welcome to UCL Museums & Collections
UCL's outstanding collections cover a wide variety of
disciplines, reflecting the range of the university's academic work.
Five collections - the UCL Art Museum, the Grant Museum, the Petrie Museum, the Geology Collections, and the Institute of Archaeology 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
Underwhelming Fossil Fish of the Month: June
Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:00:32 +0000
According to the age old adage, all fossil fish are born equal. This isn’t true. Some fossil fish are born, then die, then get fossilised to wow and impress. Suffice to say that not all fossil fish can be superstars, opening shopping centres, turning on Christmas lights and the like. Some fossil fish are born, [...]
Read more...Bear or Bare?
Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:15:18 +0000
Whilst working on some new displays recently I stuck up a sign saying “Please bear with us whilst we develop new displays”. Some people thought this was a deliberate clever pun as the display included some bears and they believed the correct spelling to be “bare”. It seems that this is a common problem as [...]
Read more...Specimen of the Week: Week Eighty-Eight
Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:00:53 +0000
I can’t believe DC Comics killed off Catwoman. WHAT is that about? I guess there may be a sequel (or eight), but the picture of her demise made it look pretty definite. It is sad times in the world of action heroes. You know what kind of animal I think would make a great superhero? [...]
Read more...Curating the Octagon Exhibition
Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:01:57 +0000
Most of the last couple of weeks I have been busy installing the new Octagon Gallery Exhibition, ‘Digital Frontiers: Smart, Connected and Participatory’. It’s been a brilliant experience and I have learnt a lot so I thought I’d talk a bit about the process of creating an exhibition from a first time curator! The exhibition [...]
Read more...Specimen of the Week: Week Eighty-Seven
Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:00:50 +0000
As with most people, I have a number of different passions. Be it, palaeontology/zoology, or films, or board games, or buying new socks, I enjoy a great many things and dedicate a serious amount of time to each. Most time of course goes to palaeontology/zoology, in so much as I am in fact paid to [...]
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
MATERIALS LIBRARY
The Materials Library is a collection of some of the most wondrous materials on earth, gathered together from sheds, labs, grottoes and repositories around the world, for their ability to fire the imagination and advance conceptualisation. It is a resource, laboratory, studio, and playground for the curious and material-minded to conduct hands-on research through truly interdisciplinary inquiry and innovation. It is housed at the Institute of Making, a cross-faculty research club for those interested in the made world: from makers of molecules to makers of buildings, synthetic skin to spacecraft, soup to diamonds, socks to cities. Annual membership of the institute is available to all UCL staff and students. Alongside the collection is the MakeSpace – a workshop where members and guests can make, break, design and combine both advanced and traditional tools, techniques and materials.
To visit the Library, come to one of our monthly open days where you can ask questions, handle materials and learn more. Sign up to the newsletter to hear all about our public events. If you have a specific request, contact us. To become a member, sign up via our website.
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.
