Olfactory heritage is an aspect of cultural heritage concerning smells that are meaningful to a community due to their connections with significant places, practices, objects or traditions, and can therefore be considered part of the cultural legacy for future generations.
We know the hundreds of scents that we perceive every day have an impact on the way we think, feel and behave. Less is known about how they affect the way we engage with history and heritage: part of our research explores how certain smells can help the retention of memories and knowledge in a museum context, make heritage more inclusive and promote well-being.
Olfactory Heritage Science
Information about olfactory heritage science
Olfactory Heritage Projects
Information about our olfactory heritage projects
We engage in discussions with scientists, heritage and policy professionals in a variety of expert forums; our findings are published in leading academic journals in the heritage science, conservation, history, chemistry and cultural studies. Our work has reached a wider audience and engaged the public in a conversation about smell and heritage.
- The New York Times
- BBC Future
- Newsweek
- BBC
- Channel 5’s Secrets of The National Trust
- The Times
- The Guardian
- CNN
- The Sunday Times
- TEDx
- The Guardian Science podcast
For other examples of media engagement, including international press, please see here.
- M. Strlič, J. Thomas, T. Trafela, L. Cséfalvayová, I. Kralj Cigić, J. Kolar, M. Cassar: “Material Degradomics: on the Smell of Old Books”, Anal Chem. 81 (2009) 8617-8622.
- M. Strlič, E. Menart, I. Kralj Cigić, G. de Bruin, J. Kolar, M. Cassar: “Emission of volatiles and reactive oxygen species during degradation of iron gall ink”, Polym. Degrad. Stab., 95 (2010) 66-71.
- M. Strlič, I. Kralj Cigić, A. Možir, G. de Bruin, J. Kolar, M. Cassar: “The Effect of Volatile Organic Compounds and Hypoxia on Paper Degradation”, Polym Degrad. Stab., 96 (2011) 608-615.
- K. Curran, M. Strlič: “Polymers and Volatiles: Using VOC Analysis for Improved Conservation of Plastic and Rubber Objects”, Stud. Conserv., 60 (2015) 1-14.
- Bembibre, C; Strlič, M; (2017) Smell of heritage: a framework for the identification, analysis and archival of historic odours. Heritage Science, 5 (1) 10.1186/s40494-016-0114-1).
- Bembibre Jacobo, C; Barratt, S; Vera, L; Strlič, M; (2017) Smelling the past: a case study for identification, analysis and archival of historic pot-pourri as a heritage smell. In: Bridgland, J, (ed.) ICOM-CC 18th Triennial Conference Preprints, Copenhagen, 4-8 September 2017. (pp. p. 1601). Paris: International Council of Museums.
- K. Curran, M. Underhill, J. Grau-Bove, T. Fearn, L. T. Gibson, M. Strlič: ”Sniffing out Decay: classifying degraded modern polymeric museum artefacts by their smell”, Angew. Chem., 57 (2018) 7336-7340, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201712278.
- F. Portoni, J. Grau-Bové, M. Strlič: “A non-invasive, non-destructive technique to quantify naphthalene emission rates from museum objects”, Heritage Science 7 (2019) #58.
Contact us
If you want to find out more about Olfactory Heritage Science and our current research please contact Cecilia Bembibre: email: cecilia.bembibre@ucl.ac.uk.
Join the UK Heritage Smell Network
The aim of the UK Heritage Smell Network is to promote awareness and recognition of sensory dimensions—particularly an underrepresented sense like smell—in heritage practice, policy, and education. It also supports collaboration and knowledge exchange between academics, industry, practitioners and the heritage sector.
To join the network, please fill in the registration form.
Shape National Guidance on Fragrance in Museums
UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage and the British Standards Institution (BSI) are convening a new working group to develop national guidelines for the use of fragrance in heritage settings. We are currently inviting heritage professionals to take part in the first sector-wide workshop in Autumn 2025. If you are working with scent, planning to do so, or have questions or concerns about its use in public spaces, your insight will be central to shaping these guidelines.
To express interest, please send us an expression of interest message.
Document sensory Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in the UK
We are working to identify and support smell-related practices within the UK’s living heritage. As the national inventory of ICH takes shape, our goal is to support communities in documenting and highlight the value of sensory heritage.
To get involved in this work, please email us to get in touch.
Join the UCL SENSOR Network (UCL only)
UCL SENSOR (Sensory rEsearch iNterdiSciplinary fORum) is an interest group under the BEAMS Heritage Science and Engineering Network. Its quarterly meetings are open to all researchers with an interest in multisensory heritage. For more information, please email us.
