Collection: Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Earth Collections

  The Earth Collections comprise around 600,000 fossils (including 1,400 type specimens), around 34,000 minerals and gemstones, around 250 meteorite samples and sections, approximately 1,880 polished decorative rocks, and more than 200,000 other rock samples and sections.

  Highlights of the collection include the first scientifically described dinosaurs and Mesozoic mammals, the most complete human skeleton known from the British Palaeolithic (the ‘Red Lady of Paviland’), and the historic Corsi collection of decorative stones. Other significant historical collections are those of Edward Lhwyd (1660-1709), William Buckland (1784-1856), John Phillips (1800-1874), and Charles Lyell (1791-1875).

  Around 60% of the fossils are fully catalogued, and a further 25% have been listed to inventory level. All are securely stored in good quality storage furniture or boxes. Funding is currently being sought for new storage furniture to accommodate the growing collection of large Mesozoic vertebrates, and is a priority within Earth Collections.

  All minerals, meteorites, decorative stones and mineralogical instruments are well documented and stored in good quality storage furniture and boxes. Around 25% of the rocks are fully catalogued, and a further 50% have been listed to inventory level.

  There is extremely limited expansion space available for Earth Collections material in the museum building. Approximately 25% of the collections are stored in 2 off-site stores, the majority of which is at a dedicated heritage store.

  Life Collections

  The non-entomological Life Collections contain an estimated 300,000 specimens including around 1,150 type specimens. They comprise in excess of 25,000 spirit specimens, 150,000 molluscs, 18,500 bird skins, 8,000 bird egg clutches, 8,000 dry invertebrate, fish, amphibian and reptile specimens, 3,000 skeletal specimens and 1,000 mounted mammals and skins.

  Significant historical holdings include the Tradescant collection (the oldest natural history collection in the UK); the only soft tissue remains of the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus); the Chelonia collection of Thomas Bell; specimens from the old Ashmolean Museum collected by the Duncan brothers; many specimens from the former Christ Church anatomical museum; and a large quantity of historic fluid-preserved specimens.

  Storage for much of the collections is of a reasonable too high standard, although there is limited expansion space. There is need for improvements for the storage of the osteological and the dry invertebrate collections. Progress continues to be made in working through a backlog of cataloguing. Data on the mammal, bird skin and various smaller invertebrate groups have been transferred to the Museum CMS and is being updated.

  The entomological collections (including all Hexapoda, Myriapoda & Arachnida) comprise over 6 million dry and spirit preserved specimens of which over 25,000 are type specimens. Worldwide in scope, there are major holdings in Palaearctic, Ethiopian and Oriental material. The collections are strong in both extent and number of types in the following orders: Coleoptera, Blattaria, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera. All recognized types are numbered and catalogued on the Museum CMS. British material is arranged on a checklist basis (though now significantly dated) with the remainder of the collection arranged to family level in systematic order. Recent grant assisted collection work has enabled about two thirds of the collection to be re-housed to modern pest proof storage. Re-housing the rest of the collection is a priority of the Museum.

  Library and Archive

  The Library covers all the museum’s disciplines. In total, it houses about 19,000 bibliographic items, and reprint collections numbering nearly 90,000 items. It is founded on two major research collections, the Hope Library (entomology) and the Arkell Library (geology and palaeontology), which specialise in material for taxonomic research related to the collections, and contain holdings that are mainly unique to Oxford.

  Archives relate to the history of the museum’s building, collections, research and other activities, and particularly important holdings are the papers of eminent 18th to 20th century scientists including those of entomologists Rev. F.W. Hope, J.O. Westwood and J.C. Dale, and geologists William Smith, William Buckland and John Phillips. Examples of more recent additions are the papers of W.J. Arkell, K.G. Cox, A.E. Eason, M.R. House, W.S. McKerrow, and L.R. Wager.

  The museum also holds a small but significant number of art and objects, including 406 items of historic mineralogical apparatus formerly used in the museum.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2019

  Licence: CC BY-NC