The UCL (University College London) Ethnography Collections was created at in the 1940s by Darryl Forde, the first head of UCL Anthropology and was drawn from a number of different sources including The Wellcome Non-Medical Collection, The London Missionary Society, the British Museum, as well as a number of private donations and collections made during fieldwork. The collection comprises about 2000 objects and 3000 photographs representing cultures from all five continents, with particular strengths in Africa and Oceania. Most of the objects have been produced in the 19th and 20th centuries with a small amount of paleolithic and neolithic, Pre-dynastic Egyptian, and Pre-Columbian collections. Today, the collection is a resource for teaching and every undergraduate and masters student in the anthropology department engage with the objects during their courses. We also host visiting researchers and artists and have loaned objects for exhibitions both across UCL, and beyond.

Regions Included in North American Collections

Collection Highlights

The North American holdings of UCL Ethnology Collections are relatively small (c. 50 objects), including small collections from the North West Coast and Alaska. Because many of our collections were donated or collected from other collecting institutions for teaching (as we are not formally a museum but rather a collection within an academic department) we often have very little detail about our collections as this information was frequently not collected with the object. We are very happy to be in touch with interested community members and researchers and happy to develop collaborations and engagement as much as possible and learn together about the artefacts.

Questions and Inquiries

For all inquiries, contact Professor Haidy Geismar, h.geismar@ucl.ac.uk

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