The UCL Ethnography Collections

The UCL Ethnography Collections, created in the 1940s by Darryl Forde, comprises about 2,000 objects and 3,000 photographs representing cultures from all five continents of the world.

About the Ethnography Collections

The UCL Ethnography Collections was created in the 1940s by Darryl Forde, the first head of UCL Anthropology, and was drawn from a number of different sources including The Wellcome Non-Medical Collection, The London Missionary Society, the British Museum, as well as a number of private donations and collections made during fieldwork. The collection comprises about 2,000 objects and 3,000 photographs representing cultures from all five continents, with particular strengths in Africa and Oceania. Most of the objects have been produced in the 19th and 20th centuries with a small amount of paleolithic and neolithic, pre-dynastic Egyptian, and pre-Columbian collections. Today, the collection is a resource for teaching and every undergraduate and masters student in the anthropology department engage with the objects during their courses. We also host visiting researchers and artists and have loaned objects for exhibitions both across UCL, and beyond.

Access the collections

We welcome visits by appointment only on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.