Explore collections

The Museum was founded in 1884, when General Pitt-Rivers gave some 30,000 artefacts to the University of Oxford. Since that date, artefacts, photographs, books and other archival material have continuously been added to the collections, so that the Museum now holds one of the most important, comprehensive, and best-documented ethnographic and archaeological collections in the world.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2016

Licence: CC BY-NC

Size, coverage and significance of current collections

The Museum’s collections comprise artefacts from all parts of the world from prehistoric times to the present day, along with major manuscript, photograph, sound and film collections. In 2015 the collections numbered over 550,000 artefacts (including objects, photographs and sound recordings) and 81 collections of manuscripts. All collections are Designated as of national or international significance, reflecting the fact that the Museum has one of the most significant archaeological and ethnographic collections in the world.

Collections are used for research and teaching in the University of Oxford, and by scholars and students nationally and internationally, as well as in the Museum’s award-winning programme of public outreach and educational activities. The Museum is committed to making its collections accessible to the widest possible audience, as detailed in the Museum’s Access Policy. Displays are open to the general public daily.

The collections are managed, documented and displayed according to the Museum’s Documentation Policy and Procedural Manual, Collections Care and Conservation Policy, and Access Policy. Backlogs in documentation are being addressed according to the Museum’s Documentation Backlog Plan.

Strength and significance of collections

Ethnographic collections

Selective highlights of the ethnographic collections include the Forster collection of Pacific artefacts from Captain Cook’s Second Voyage (1772–75), one of the great collections of eighteenth-century Pacific art and material culture; rich collections from central Australia donated by pioneer ethnographers W. B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen; great depth of nineteenth- and twentieth-century collections from South Sudan, including those of eminent anthropologist Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard; the Hopkins collection, made by the Governor of the Hudson’s Bay company in 1841–2, containing rare examples of painted and quilled Northern Plains war shirts, which have become benchmark references for scholars; European music collections, including a virginal by Marco Jadra (dated 1552) – the oldest keyboard instrument in Oxford, as well as musical boxes and mechanical musical instruments; the collection made in 1825–28 by F. W. Beechey and E. Belcher, officers on the sloop HMS Blossom, among the earliest Inuit collections in the world; the contents of the private museum of the Second Rajah of Sarawak, donated to the Museum in 1923; exceptional Naga holdings (more than 6,000 objects) many collected by J. H. Hutton and J. P. Mills between 1915 and 1945 and constituting one of the best-documented collections in the world; the collection of European firearms (General Pitt-Rivers’ original interest), which includes many early and type examples of great significance to firearms specialists.

Archaeological collections

Selective highlights of the archaeological collections include the magnificent collections of Neolithic and Bronze Age materials from the Swiss Lake Villages exposed during the droughts of 1853–4; important Cypriot material; an impressive collection of Danish Neolithic and Bronze materials, as well as some of General Pitt-Rivers’s own archaeological collections; part of the mid-nineteenth-century Bowker collection; the earliest known collections of stone implements from South Africa (and probably from anywhere south of the Sahara); some of the oldest human artefacts from the lowest levels of Olduvai Gorge, and large and important collections of Acheulian artefacts donated by Louis Leakey in the 1940s. The Museum’s South American archaeological collections include more than 500 ancient Peruvian textiles, as well as the Acland collection of Peruvian mummified material.

Photograph collections

Selective highlights of the photograph collections (many of which have associated object collections) include: the C. F. Wood collection of over two hundred photographs (wet collodion plates and albumen prints) of Fiji, Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Samoa (1872–3), some of the earliest from the region; the C. W. & F. Dammann collection (c.1872-5) of over one thousand photographs compiled for the comparative study of race; R. G. Woodthorpe albums of watercolours and photographs (c.1872–6) from Assam and Northeast India; the R. S. Rattray collection of photographs relating to 1920s Ghana, taken by a distinguished colonial administrator and ethnographer; R. Hottot collection (1908-9) of nearly 600 verascope stereo positives from ethnographic and hunting expeditions to the Congo; Evans-Pritchard collection (1926-36) of photographs from fieldwork in South Sudan; H. Richardson collection (1936–1950) of photographs of Tibet charting a long involvement with the country; and the Wilfred Thesiger collection (1930s–1980s) of 38,000 negatives and 74 albums relating to the Middle East, Arabian Peninsula, Asia and East Africa taken by the travel writer and photographer.

Manuscript collections

Selective highlights of the manuscript collections include: correspondence on the early days of the Museum; E. B. Tylor Papers, correspondence and notes 1877–1916, from one of the founders of British anthropology; Pitt-Rivers Papers, including correspondence and notebooks of the Museum’s founder; correspondence and notebooks of W. Baldwin Spencer 1892–1928 from a key figure in early anthropology in Australia; South Sudan, especially the papers of Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard, Godfrey Lienhardt and Jean Buxton; Henry Balfour Papers, especially field diaries from Africa (1905, 1910–30) and Assam (1922); Beatrice Blackwood Papers, especially a candid set of field diaries from North America (1924–7) and Melanesia (1929–37).

Film collections

The Museum has a small but interesting collection of original films, most of which either accompanied donations of artefacts or photographs, or else were acquired for teaching and research purposes. Much of the material is unique and of significant historical importance, such as the films of Frederick Spencer Chapman made from the 1930s onwards in Tibet, Greenland and Africa, Beatrice Blackwood in Papua New Guinea in 1936 and Ursula Graham Bower in India in 1939.

Sound collections

The Museum’s sound collections contain unique historical field recordings, most of which are directly related to collections of objects and photographs held by the Museum. The sound collections exist in a variety of historical formats, such as wax cylinders recorded as early as 1910, reel to reel tapes, and audio tapes. The Museum completed a major project to digitize these field collections in 2012 and a selection of the recordings along with information about the collections is available via the Reel to Real project website. Selected highlights include the largest archive of Bayaka music in the world, recorded by Louis Sarno over 30 years in Central African Republic and Diamond Jenness’s wax cylinder recordings from the D’Entrecasteaux Islands in 1911-12.

Material not accepted for permanent collection (handling collection)

The Museum may occasionally, and with the written agreement of the donor or person transferring the material, acquire items that are not intended to be retained for the permanent collection. These items may be used as part of educational or school handling activities, to supplement student teaching or for destructive research.

These acquisitions will be recorded separately outside the main accession record of the Museum and shall not be treated as part of the permanent collection since their intended use implies that preservation cannot be guaranteed. A record will be kept of how and when any material is disposed of.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2016

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Scott Polar Research Institute was founded in 1920 as part of the University of Cambridge by Frank Debenham, as a memorial to Captain Scott and his four companions who perished during Captain Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition (1910-13). Frank Debenham himself had been a geologist on the expedition but did not take part in the ill-fated journey to the South Pole. The Institute was established as a centre for polar research, exploration and information where explorers could share their knowledge and experience of the polar regions, having as its most important function ‘to preserve continuity in research and exploration’.

Frank Debenham wrote:

“The building would contain these at least; a practical museum of Polar equipment (not the things one sees as relics in the R.G.S. [Royal Geographical Society] but the things explorers want to see and handle and know the use and cost of, such as camp gear, instruments, clothing etc.); a comprehensive library of Polar literature and maps, not only narratives as at the R.G.S. but all the scientific reports; thirdly a set of rooms for the use of people undertaking research, these people might be returned scientists, budding explorers or people working up papers on Polar subjects who require the facilities.”

Initially the museum collection was made up in large part of equipment from Captain Scott’s second expedition, The British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13, such as sledges, scientific equipment, tents and outer clothing, deposited in the 1920’s, including Captain Oates’ sleeping bag and Herbert Ponting’s camera. The bulk of this material was deposited as examples for subsequent expeditions (e.g. of things that worked well or were best avoided) and a selection of material was available for loan to defray costs of equipment for polar expeditions. Expeditions to the Arctic also brought back material produced by the Indigenous people they encountered, such as hunting and trapping equipment, clothing, domestic equipment and carvings. Artefacts that played a commemorative and memorialisation role were also collected.

In due course, the condition of the equipment in the collection, and new technological developments, caused much of this equipment to become historical artefacts, which were preserved as such. Several subsequent polar expeditions deposited clothing and equipment and other items with the Institute for a similar purpose, such as The British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) (1929-31) led by Sir Douglas Mawson and the British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE) (1933-37) led by Sir John Rymill. In 1933 The Gino Watkins Memorial Fund was established similarly to lend equipment to small polar expeditions, and much of the material from that expedition was also donated to the Institute. In time this material, also, became out-dated, and was considered of significance to preserve for future generations.

Since 1934, when the SPRI Museum was opened, the development of the collections has been characterised by systematic organisation, the adoption of a deliberate collecting policy and the professional guidance of both curatorial staff and specialist advisors. The Museum’s collections have been built upon the principle of seeking to represent human activity and the natural environment in the polar regions, with a focus on British polar activity.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Museum displays a selection of unique museum artefacts and artworks, together with photographs, and manuscripts from the Institute’s collections. They focus primarily on historic British expeditions to the Antarctic and Arctic, particularly those of Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912), Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922), and Sir John Franklin (1786-1847). It also shares the Institute’s current research into glaciology and climate, polar politics and the role and status of the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic.

The Museum’s collections are considered to be of national and international importance. The collections form part of an international centre for research and reference relating to the science, exploration, history, geography and environment of the Arctic and Antarctic. Artefacts relating to polar exploration and research may be found in several British collections, and the SPRI Museum is one of only three with permanent displays on a range of Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, the others being the National Maritime Museum and Discovery Point. It is the only dedicated, specialist polar collection within a UK Higher Educational Institution.

The museum’s collections continue to represent the key aims of the museum, that is, to inspire and educate people of all ages and backgrounds about the polar regions by facilitating and encouraging encounters with our carefully cared for collections of polar objects and art, and with polar research and scholarship.

The Museum’s core collections consist of:

• Arctic material culture collection: (1,000+ items) illustrative of Arctic material culture, such as; carvings, clothing, textiles and transportation.
• Arctic exploration: (500+ items) material relating to a range of expeditions, including those of Sir John Franklin, John and James Clark Ross, Buchan and Back and Nares.
• Antarctic collections: (2000+ items) artefacts relating to the history and technology of exploration, from 1885 to the present, including Captain Oates’s sleeping bag, Herbert Ponting’s camera, Frank Worsley’s sextant used to navigate the James Caird some 800 miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia in 1916 and Amundsen’s sextant measurements of the South Pole.
• Scrimshaw collections (78 items)
• Paintings (2295+ items) including over 500 watercolours and around 300 sketches by Edward Adrian Wilson and the earliest extant sketches on paper made by Canadian Inuit.

In addition to the museum collection of three-dimensional artefacts and artworks, SPRI is also home to three other separately administered collections, which may also be displayed in the museum:

• Photographs and film (100,000+ images) of polar exploration and science, dating from 1845 to the present, in a range of formats including cinematographic film, lantern slides and daguerreotypes.
• Archival collections (1,000,000+ manuscript items) in 2,200+ accessions and the Institute’s own archive (the SPRI Working Files). Original documents and surrogate copies from the archives are made available to the public through display in the museum. These include one of the only documents recovered from Franklin’s ill-fated 1845-48 Arctic voyage and last letters written by Captain Scott, Dr Wilson and Lieutenant Bowers during the 1910-13 Antarctic expedition.
• The Library of the Scott Polar Research Institute offers the world’s premier polar information centre. The Library holds a collection developed since the 1920s with over 700 current journals and over 250,000 printed works covering all subjects relating to the Arctic, the Antarctic, and to ice and snow wherever found, and includes extensive Special Collections printed before 1920.

Antarctic displays include materials found in the tent with the bodies of Scott, Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers; the sleeping bag of Captain Oates; watercolours by Wilson; sledges, skis and equipment used by Scott’s and other expeditions; material from Shackleton’s Nimrod and Endurance expeditions; and the world’s earliest collected Emperor penguin egg.

Arctic displays and collections relate primarily to the British Naval Northwest Passage expeditions of the first half of the 19th century. They include journals, artwork, daguerreotypes and cutlery recovered from Franklin’s last expedition. Further exhibits are devoted to indigenous Arctic cultures, including a kayak and equipment from East Greenland, Inuit art, shamanism and scrimshaw.

Of materials not on display, artefact collections, including clothing, exploration technologies and framed artworks are housed in the Museum’s stores. The Archive and Picture Library hold extensive manuscript and photographic collections, and also house unframed artworks from the museum collection The Library holds special collections and a range of supporting secondary literature.

The handling collection incorporates material that is considered appropriate for use or handling by visitors and researchers, with the understanding that the materials in the collection may become damaged with normal wear and tear over time and, ultimately, be disposed of. The handling collection may include duplicates of items in the collections, as well as other objects that are not considered suitable for acquisition into the permanent collection. Materials in the handling collection are not accessioned as part of the museum collections.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC