Collection: University of Aberdeen Collections

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The collections are the product of hundreds of years of collecting, driven by the research and teaching activities of staff and the activities of graduates and other people. Items have been acquired by the University and its constituent institutions from their foundation in 1495. A library has been in existence since the earliest years, while museums were established in the 18th century in King’s College and Marischal College. The collections are of great local and international importance. They have a deep cohesion and quality stemming from the intellectual interests of staff, students and graduates, augmented by material from individuals, families, businesses and organisations associated with the University and the North-East of Scotland (approximating to the local authority areas of Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray). Consequently, the collection largely reflects historic collecting practices and does not fully represent the diversity of the University today. The collections are managed together as University Collections within the Directorate of Digital and Information Services with the aim of enhancing their care and accessibility.

  The Archives are the central place for the curation of the historic records of the University, its predecessors, and affiliated bodies, augmented by the gift, loan and purchase of manuscripts and archives of individuals, families, businesses and organisations associated with the University and the North-East of Scotland. The rare book and printed collections were identified as a distinct special collection in the 1970s and later managed alongside the University’s archives. The University Collections Centre is an archive repository recognised by the National Archives and the National Records of Scotland (reference GB 0231). The museum collections combine several former departmental collections with centrally managed art and heritage collections, now Accredited as three collections covering a wide range of Human Culture, Medicine and Health, and the Natural Sciences. The entire museum collection was awarded the status of a Recognised Collection of National Significance by the Scottish Government in 2007.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Archive collections

  There are approximately 5000 archive collections falling under the following broad categories: The institutional archive of the University of Aberdeen, its predecessors, and affiliated bodies, including the Aberdeen Colleges of Education and the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health; Personal and professional papers of significant members of staff of the University of Aberdeen, its predecessors and affiliated bodies; Records of other individuals, families, estates, businesses, and organisations associated with the University of Aberdeen and/or the North-East of Scotland; Photographic collections; Oral histories, relating to the University and the energy industry; Other collections of papers of particular institutional and/or academic importance.

  Rare books and printed collections

  University Collections currently exercises curatorial responsibility for over 230,000 rare books in the university library collections. These comprise all printed scientific and topographical books printed to 1860; books in other subjects to 1840, and other printed materials deemed valuable or otherwise important from 1860 to the present, by virtue of association of author or provenance or of congruence of subject with the University of Aberdeen and/or the North-East of Scotland. These are classified as: Inc (Incunabula); π or Pi (pre-1600 Continental, pre-1640 English and pre-1780 Scottish); SB (other pre 1841 material, plus scientific and medical titles pre-1861); SBL (examples of local printing to 1800); Lib R (rare titles, mostly mid- to late 19th century); Items of local interest, relating to the University or to economic, political, social, cultural or topographical aspects of Aberdeen or to North-East Scotland; Items associated with significant individuals, or organisations, related to the University, Aberdeen, or North-East Scotland. Among the collections are over 45 distinct collections, covering a diverse range of subjects, from Classical literature to pharmacology. Recognised strengths include Charles Dickens, Hebraica and Judaica, history of science, including medicine, Jacobitism (centred on the MacBean collection), rail and other transport within North-East Scotland (centred on the O’Dell collection), Walter Scott, (centred on the Bernard C. Lloyd Walter Scott collection), theology, typography, and Victorian fiction and poetry. In addition, curatorial responsibility is exercised for reference copies of University theses.

  Human Culture museum collections

  The University’s cultural museum collections are of particular significance, reflecting both North-East Scotland and the results of collecting by graduates and staff across the World, mainly during the 19th and early 20th centuries: Scottish historical collections reflecting the history of the University, North-East culture and militaria; Archaeological collections of prehistoric and early historic material from North-East Scotland; Fine Art, particularly Early Modern Scottish painting, 17th-20th century portraiture, 19th and 20th century prints, and a collection of 20th century works by Scottish Colourists based on a bequest by Eric Linklater; Archaeological collections from Italy, Egypt and Central America, and more modern cultural material from North and South America, South and East Asia, South, East and West Africa, Australia, the Pacific, and the Balkans; Numismatics, with particular strengths in Classical coins, Scottish coins and communion tokens, commemorative and prize medals, but also trade tokens, jetons and beggars’ badges; Historic scientific instruments, particularly natural philosophy in Aberdeen from the 18th to later 20th centuries

  Medicine and Health museum collections

  The collection consists of spirit-preserved anatomical and pathological specimens, anatomical and pathological models, and drawings and watercolours of dissections, and surgical instruments deriving from the former Surgery Museum. Acquisition and management of parts of the collection is restricted by the Anatomy Acts, as amended by the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006.

  Natural Science museum collections

  The Geology collection includes items from localities which are no longer available for collecting and specimens with associated petrographic thin sections and chemical analyses.

  Palaeontology, including over 600 ‘Type and Figured’ specimens, with strengths in fossil corals and Bryozoa and early reptiles, and the internationally-renowned Early Devonian Rhynie chert; Minerals, particularly from the British Isles; The rock collection contains material of worldwide origin, with a particular strength in northern Scotland. The Herbarium is internationally important and worldwide in scope, with good provenance information and notes made by researchers relating to individual specimens: A large representative collection of Scottish material, including algae, fungi, and lichens; Collections from southern Asia, notably a special emphasis on Thailand, including over 400 type specimens collected by A. F. G. Kerr and W. G. Craib, and a collection of vascular plants from northern India, including type specimens, collected by H. H. Haines; A small but historically important collection of vascular plants from Antarctica collected during the 1922 Shackleton-Rowett Expedition and the 1967 British Antarctic Survey; Approximately 5000 vascular plant specimens from North America and Canada collected by V. C. Wynne-Edwards and other staff. The Zoology collection includes a wide range of material that is worldwide in scope, covering protozoa to the great whales: Mammal and bird mounted taxidermy and study skins; Fluid-preserved specimens; Insect collections and collections of slides; Skeletal material, originally part of the comparative anatomical collections; Biological models, including work by Blaschka, Brendel and Auzoux.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC