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

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.

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