The University of Cambridge holds exceptional museums and collections reflecting Cambridge’s position as one of the world’s leading universities.

The University collections form a research infrastructure that is unique to the Cambridge research environment. In the following pages you can find out more about research at each institution, as well as the under-researched areas of the collections that would provide the ideal focus for new collaborative projects. Choose a collection profile below to find out more.

The University collections are currently working together through the Collections-Connections-Communities (CCC) interdisciplinary research initiative. CCC supports, catalyses, and empowers communities of researchers who use the University’s collections to discover the past, learn about the present and act on the future.

Museum research and practice case studies are available on our Collections in Action blog.

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Museum of Classical Archaeology
Housing one of the finest collections of plaster casts of classical sculpture in the world.
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Kettle's Yard
A unique art collection, a historic house and a dedicated art gallery hosting modern and contemporary exhibitions.
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Fitzwilliam Museum
The Fitzwilliam Museum houses more than 500,000 objects, spanning six continents and over 5,000 years of history.
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Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
An internationally important collection of over two million fossils, minerals and rocks.
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Museum of Zoology
One of the country’s largest and most important natural history museums, with over two million modern and fossil specimens from across the world.
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Whipple Museum of the History of Science
Internationally important collections of scientific instruments, apparatus, models, pictures, prints, photographs, books and other material related to the history of science.
Herbarium
Cambridge University Herbarium
A rich resource for many scientific and historical fields of research, from evolutionary genetic studies to present day conservation science and investigations into colonial history and the development of scientific ideas about the natural world.