Human Culture Collections

Scottish History and Archaeology

From Mesolithic flints to 20th century farm tools, the main strengths of the collection lie in North-East prehistory, Scottish militaria and University history, while there are also important collections of recent historical items and folk-life material. The archaeological collection is now the principal depository of prehistoric and early historic material from the North-East, building on the collections of funerary assemblages from eastern Scotland.

Certain groups of material also have excellent supporting documentary material. At the heart of the militaria collection is the The Gordon Collection, including medals associated with members of the Gordon clan and militaria formerly associated with the House of Gordon.

Scientific Instruments

The collection of around 3,000 historical scientific instruments is one of the most diverse collections of historical scientific instruments in any British University, closely associated with teaching and research in natural philosophy.

The 18th and 19th century objects cover numerous subject areas, notably astronomy, surveying and navigation, statics and dynamics, properties of matter, pneumatics and hydraulics, electrostatics, current electricity and magnetism, optics, heat, acoustics, meteorology.

The 20th century collection is a major strength, including additional themes such as:

X-rays
Electronic instruments and measurements
Measuring radioactivity
Precision instrumentation
Computational machines
Optical equipment

Coins and Medals

Alongside the excellent series of Classical coins, including the Newnham Davis Greek coin collection, there are many commemorative and prize medals, trade tokens, jetons, beggars’ badges and British military medals. The wide-ranging series of Scottish-minted coins starts with an early 12th century silver penny of David I and continues to 1709.

There are also several thousand coins from the Upperkirkgate, Aberdeen hoard, over 1,000 medieval European hammered coins, 1,500 British milled coins and 9,000 coins from India, China and elsewhere, with almost 10,000 communion tokens from most parishes in Scotland and elsewhere in the British Empire.

Non-Western Archaeology and Ethnography

The University’s ethnographic collections are among the three largest in Scotland, with the collections from Central America being the largest and those from North America, East Africa, South Africa and Australia in second place. The collections from West Africa, South Asia, Melanesia and Polynesia are almost as important in such terms.

The importance of the collection is enhanced by quality of specific collections and their association with collectors, such as those from Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands made by the first British Administrator, Sir William McGregor. The European collections are dominated by the 1930s Balkan collections of Margaret Hasluck.

Fine Art

The areas of greatest strength in the collection are Early Modern Scottish painting, 17th-20th century portraiture and 19th century prints, including works by George Jamesone, Cosmo Alexander, Anne Forbes, and Alberto Morrocco.

The collections of landscapes include works by many important artists, such as James Giles, Joseph Farquharson, and James Morrison.

Other donations and purchases have built on the collection of 20th century works by Scottish Colourists that was established by the bequest from Eric Linklater.

Recently, an original Canaletto was also discovered to be part of the collection.

Browse the collection on ArtUK

European and Mediterranean Archaeology

The internationally significant collections from Egypt are the second-largest in Scotland, with over 4000 items, mainly the gift of Dr James Grant. There are also excavated assemblages from Egypt, Palestine and Mesopotamia. There is a notable highlight in Ancient Greek ceramics, complementing the impressive Greek and Roman coin collections.

The important early 19th century collections of Dr Robert Wilson from Italy, Greece, Egypt and Mesopotamia are particularly enhanced by their association with his library and archives held by the University.