- Wikidata identifier:
- Q17028042
- Also known as:
- University of Cambridge Museums
- Instance of:
- museum
- Museum/collection status:
- Accredited Museum
- Accreditation number:
- 692
- Persistent shareable link for this record:
- https://museumdata.uk/museums/q17028042/
Collection-level records:
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Collection history (Collection development policy)
Woodwardian Collection
The personal collection of Dr John Woodward (1665-1728) in its original secretaire style collector’s cabinets. The collection, part bequeathed to the University by Woodward in 1728, part purchased from his executors, is one of the world’s oldest intact geological collections and is historically unique. It comprises 9,400 rocks, minerals, fossils and archaeological artefacts. The collection was added to sporadically during the 18th century by successive Woodwardian professors but has been a purely static collection since the early 19th century.
Palaeontology Collection
The palaeontological collection can be traced back to the activities of Adam Sedgwick 7th Woodwardian Professor appointed in 1818. Sedgwick set out to develop a comprehensive geological reference collection and establish a dedicated geological Museum in Cambridge (which opened in the Cockerell Building in about 1842). Initially based on the specimens collected during the field excursions of Sedgwick and Prof. John Stevens Henslow amongst others the collection was expanded through the purchase of significant objects (e.g. Sedgwick’s ‘Giant Elk’ and ‘Whitby Plesiosaur’) and collections (e.g. Münster Collection c. 1839). The collection has also benefited from the local exploitation of mineral resources, in particular brick manufacture (Oxford and Kimmeridge Clay fossils), phosphate mineral extraction and cement manufacture (Neolithic-Bronze Age peat, Cam river gravel and Cambridge Greensand fossils).
Mineral Collection
The Mineral Collection was formally established in 1808 with the creation of the Chair of Mineralogy. However, many of its specimens can be traced back to collections of the late 18th century, such as those of Sir Abraham Hume and the Duchess of Portland. About half of the 40,000 – 55,000 specimens of the present collection came in four collections: Hume (acquired 1841), H. Brooke (1857), J. Carne (1899) and T. Wiltshire (1897).
Petrology Collection
Igneous & Metamorphic Petrology (‘Harker’) Collection
The Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology Collection is also known as the ‘Harker Collection’ after Alfred Harker, who curated it from the 1880s until his death in 1939. Harker took the igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks collected by earlier workers such as Adam Sedgwick, John Stevens Henslow and Charles Darwin and systematically organised and catalogued them. He also oversaw and engaged in the acquisition of new material by collection, purchase, donation and exchange. In 1931 the Petrology section was split off from the Sedgwick Museum and combined with Mineralogy to form a new department, the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology. During this process it seems that only the igneous and metamorphic rocks in the collection were transferred to the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology; sedimentary rocks being retained by the Department of Geology (Sedgwick Museum). The igneous and metamorphic rock collection was returned to the Sedgwick Museum in 1980 when the three Departments of Geodesy and Geophysics, Geology (Sedgwick Museum) and Mineralogy and Petrology amalgamated to form the current Department of Earth Sciences and Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences.
Sedimentary Petrology (‘Maurice Black’) Collection
The Sedimentary Petrology Collection can be traced back to the origins of the Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology Collection becoming a collection in its own right when the Sedgwick Museum’s igneous and metamorphic rocks were transferred to the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology in 1931 (see above). It is also sometimes known as the ‘Maurice Black Collection’, after Maurice Black a carbonate sedimentologist in the Department of Geology, who developed the collection during the 1930s -1960s.
‘John Watson’ Building Stone Collection
The John Watson Building Stone Collection is a comprehensive collection of traditional building stones, roofing slates, road stones, flagstones and decorative and ornamental stones that were in extensive use throughout Britain and its colonies during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is based on the collection of 300 British & foreign building stones, and specimens illustrating the manufacture of plasters and cements from their raw materials given to the Sedgwick Museum by Watson on his retirement from the Portland cement industry in 1905. Watson continued to develop the collection for the Museum up until his death in 1918, by which time the collection comprised approximately 2,500 well documented specimens, mostly covered by Watson’s published catalogues.
Sedgwick Museum education ‘handling collection’
The Museum’s handling collection comprises about 1,000 rocks, minerals and fossils administered by the Museum’s Education Coordinator. The collection is used for teaching and handling activities in the Museum and forms the core collection for the development of school loan boxes. The collection is partly based on specimens drawn from the reserve collections, some of which may relate to donors or collectors of historical significance. The remainder of the collection consists mostly of disposals from Departmental field collections and specimens collected or purchased by education staff. The collection is added to occasionally to replace damaged and deteriorated specimens or to support the development of new educational resources.
Department of Earth Sciences Teaching Collection and Examination Series
The Department of Earth Sciences holds a large amount of material for teaching and examination purposes. Much of this material has been drawn together from the activities of the three former departments and their associated Museums (including the Sedgwick Museum) that now form the Department of Earth Sciences. The collection also contains material obtained by departmental staff for teaching purposes through field collection or disposal from other academic/educational establishments. Although the collection contains a large proportion of what can be considered as Museum specimens, the Museum currently exercises little control over acquisition or disposal.
Recent organisational changes in the Department and Museum have however enabled a reappraisal of these collections and where responsibilities for them lie.
Source: Collection development policy
Date: 2019
Licence: CC BY-NC
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Collection overview (Collection development policy)
Woodwardian Collection
This collection contains specimens obtained from many of Woodward’s contacts including members of the Royal Society such as Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Christopher Wren. The collection is international in scope, there being specimens from most of the known 17th Century world including those obtained from the explorer William Dampier, Johann Jakob Scheuzer and Abraham von Schönberg (superintendent of mines Saxony and Lord Chamberlain to August III of Poland). Many specimens have been figured in early treatises concerning theories on the origin of fossils, including around 50 fossils figured as early as 1670 by the artist and naturalist Agostino Scilla. Others have been figured by Martin Lister and John Morton. It also contains the world’s earliest collection of minerals from the Carpathians. The collection is remarkably well-documented for its time, in Woodward’s catalogues published posthumously.
Palaeontology Collection
The collection currently comprises well over a million individual specimens, it is taxonomically comprehensive and international in scope. The collection includes a large number of type (over 9,000 primary types), figured and cited specimens (over 16,000 each) and other scientifically and historically important material. In Britain it ranks in scope and size, second only to the palaeontological collection of the Natural History Museum. It supports palaeontological and biostratigraphical research on an international scale. The collection continues to grow through the research efforts of the academic staff and research students of the Department of Earth Sciences and through deposit via the Regional Collections Centre Scheme.
Mineral Collection
About half of the 40,000 – 55,000 specimens of the present collection came in four collections: Hume (acquired 1841), H. Brooke (1857), J. Carne (1899) and T. Wiltshire (1897). Also notable are the holdings of sulphides and sulphosalts from the Binntal in Switzerland, and the meteorites. The collection is growing slowly by donation and purchase. Display-quality specimens from around the world are occasionally purchased. Representative specimens from current British locations are purchased or accepted as donations.
Petrology Collection – Igneous & Metamorphic Petrology (‘Harker’) Collection
The Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology Collection has global coverage; most major igneous and metamorphic provinces are represented. The collection consists of about 160,000 hand specimens and 250,000 thin sections, about 25% of which have been referenced in the international scientific literature. The collection continues to grow through the effort of researchers in the Department of Earth Sciences, but also from workers in other institutions and through deposit via the Regional Collections Centre Scheme (see 7.3 below).
Sedimentary Petrology (‘Maurice Black’) Collection
The Sedimentary Petrology Collection, comprises a ‘nucleus’ of about 32,000 hand specimens and an unknown number of thin sections. It includes specimens collected by John Stevens Henslow, Adam Sedgwick, Rev. John Hailstone and R.H. Rastall. Many specimens still have Harker Petrology
Collection numbers and labels written in Harker’s handwriting. The collection also includes the Cambridge bore core made by W.B.R. King c. 1951. The ‘Sedgwick Museum Stratigraphy Collection’ of thin sections (about 3,500 specimens) has been cut from many of the specimens in this collection and can therefore be considered as a sub set of it. There are an estimated 82,180 additional specimens including PhD thesis collections, miscellaneous Departmental Collections and other backlog material that may need to be incorporated into the collection. The collection is poorly documented, drawer level inventories were made in 1977 and 1979, but the collection has been little used or added to at the time of writing.
(‘John Watson’) Building Stone Collection
The John Watson Building Stone Collection is approximately 2,500 well documented specimens, mostly covered by Watson’s published catalogues. Thin sections cut from the building stones have been incorporated into the Petrology and other collections. The collection also includes a number of artificial building stones and cements long thought lost, but recently rediscovered in the Museum’s stores. The collection is used mostly by building and archaeological conservators and is currently only added to very rarely.
Source: Collection development policy
Date: 2019
Licence: CC BY-NC