Collections online

Please note

We are currently in the process of creating a new Collections Online resource, which we anticipate being available from spring 2023. This means that the current online database will not be updated with any new information until that time. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

The databases provide access to all the information held by the Museum about the objects and historic photographs in its collections.

Search the object collections

Search the photograph collections

View the manuscript collections listing

Users are asked to bear in mind that these are working databases that are constantly being updated. It is important to see how objects were perceived in the past; therefore we preserve all the information ever recorded. Some of this historic terminology is discriminatory and offensive. Please note that the databases include records for objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities. Also please note that the objects and photography databases are optimised for desktop users only; we are working on mobile friendly versions.

The Museum is always pleased to receive further information about the objects in its collections, and corrections to database entries. These should be emailed to objects.colls@prm.ox.ac.uk or ms-photo.colls@prm.ox.ac.uk.

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Haida collections and resources

Collections and resources about Haida culture and art

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Cook-Voyage collections

One of the world's great collections of 18th century Pacific art and material culture

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Small blessings

Explore some of the amulet collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum

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Body Art

Exploring the Body Art collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum

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Southern Sudan

Detailed catalogue of the collections from Southern Sudan held at the Museum

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The Other Within

Analysing the English collections at the Museum

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Arms and Armour

Explore over 200 highlights from the arms and armour collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum

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Blackfoot shirts

These important items bring together cultural, historical and artistic knowledge.

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Selected Lower Gallery Objects

Look at the photographs and descriptions of a selection of objects from the Lower Gallery.

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Shields and Objects

Explore the history of anthropology & ethnography, and shields and weapons.

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Transformations: the art of recycling

A celebration of human creativity through recycling and re-use

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Craft Film Directory

A wide variety of online films demonstrating historical, contemporary, and anthropological craft practices from across the world.

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Photographs of Arabia by Wilfred Thesiger

Explore over 5000 images from Arabia by the renowned traveller and photographer Sir Wilfred Thesiger between 1945 and 1950.

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Scoping Museum Anthropology

This is a website about the development of museum anthropology as a discipline, and about the set of related museum artefacts, at the University of Oxford during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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Rethinking Pitt-Rivers

Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers (1827-1900) was a soldier and collector, interested in anthropology and archaeology. This website is about him, and his collections.

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Luo Visual History

Explore around 350 historical Luo photographs, the result of a collaborative project between the Pitt Rivers Museum and members of the Luo community of Nyanza Province, western Kenya.

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The Tibet Album

6000 photographs spanning 30 years of Tibet's history. These extraordinary photographs are a unique record of people long gone and places changed beyond all recognition.

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Congo Journey

Photographs and Documents from Robert Hottot's Expedition to Central Africa

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Film

The Museum has a small but interesting collection of original films, most of which either accompanied donations of artefacts or photographs, or else were acquired for teaching and research purposes.

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Sound

The Pitt Rivers Museum's sound collections contain unique historical field recordings, most of which are directly related to collections of objects and photographs held by the Museum.