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
Specimen of the Week: Week Ninety
Mon, 01 Jul 2013 09:00:32 +0000
Whilst wandering around the Museum (as Museum Assistants do) this week I noticed a bizarre bone growth on a skull on display. Any such bone growth is immediately looked for on the other side of the skull because that would indicate (though not conclusively) that it was a natural phenomenon. The left hand side of [...]
Read more...Working [in Museums] Wednesdays #4
Thu, 27 Jun 2013 10:25:24 +0000
This blog post comes to you from Prague, waters subsided and tempest abated, although I resemble some sort of muscalid who has been flooded out if its riverside home. Careering on through our Working in Museums series I am going to write about a few job application essentials, namely: the Curriculum Vitae. Content Speaking only [...]
Read more...Specimen of the Week: Week Eighty-Nine
Mon, 24 Jun 2013 09:00:05 +0000
I decided to stick with the theme of creatures with a slow-paced lifestyle this week. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, you clearly- poor thing- missed out on last week’s Specimen of the Week. The species that features in this week’s edition is dear to my heart, having had a special bond with [...]
Read more...Springwatch in review
Thu, 20 Jun 2013 23:00:29 +0000
I, like many a young, curly-haired Welsh zoologist was raised on the staple of Attenborough documentaries, (I became especially obsessed with the beautiful scene off the coast of Patagonia with the orca hunting the seals). Springwatch, which recently ended it’s three week run, couldn’t be further from the sandy beaches of Patagonia. It’s been described as [...]
Read more...How To: Be a Good Museum Pest
Thu, 20 Jun 2013 09:00:43 +0000
Do you having any burning desires to have something explained by someone on the inside? This new blog is a How To Guide for the museological musings of a Museum Assistant. The first along this (hopefully) long and happy blogging path is… How to: Be a Good Museum Pest There are two types of creepy [...]
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.
