Looking for stories and knowledge inspired by the University of Cambridge collections? Much of it happens in parts of the world wide web you (possibly) rarely visit. That's why we've gathered some of it here. This page is regularly updated with new magical items of content. 

Use the refine list function below to explore different collections and topics.

Link to current selection
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Visit an online exhibition featuring two works sculpted nearly 500 years apart. Despite this, the materials, techniques, scale, and the idealisation of the male body are similar. Intrigued? 

Digital Exhibition, Shorthand
Museum of Classical Archaeology

This piece concerns two bronze sculptures of Roman emperors Augustus and Claudius at the Museum of Classical Archaeology.

Audio, Soundscape
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

A remarkable Victorian scrapbook

Blog post
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

200-year-old spectacles that help us see changing attitudes to disability

Film
Museum of Classical Archaeology

Why are we reluctant to engage with the idea of a woman taking part in a battle?

Film
The Polar Museum

Sacred carvings made by the Nenets people of North Siberia

Film
Museum of Classical Archaeology

Watch a film about one of the most provocative pieces in the Museum of Classical Archaeology's Cast Gallery.

Film, Talk
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

Who counts as a scientist?

Film
The Polar Museum

What can a kayak, gut parka and voting badge tell us about climate change?

Livestream
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Film
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

An exciting new collection of dinosaur casts was donated to the Sedgwick Museum in 2017. Among them, those of a prehistoric icon: Tyrannosaurus rex.

Digital Exhibition, Shorthand
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

An intriguing pair of necklaces from early human history

 

Film
The Fitzwilliam Museum

A botanical watercolour reveals the connection between science and empire

Film
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Watch this film to find out more about Magdalene Odundo, one of the greatest ceramic artists working today, and her practice.

Artwork
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Meet Little John, a very bony fish and learn about conservation in the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences.

Livestream
Museum of Classical Archaeology

Dr Susanne Turner, Curator at the Museum of Classical Archaeology, talks to us about a plaster cast taken from a carved marble head of the ancient Greek god Apollo. 

Podcast
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Listen to poems written by Year 8 students from Cromwell Community College as part of a Heritage Fund project called 'Pacific Currents'.

Poetry
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Whipple Museum of the History of Science, The Polar Museum, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Museum of Classical Archaeology

Objects from across the University of Cambridge Museums as you've never heard them before...

Artwork, Digital Exhibition, Poetry, Shorthand, Spoken word
Museum of Zoology

Jack Ashby, Museum Manager at the University Museum of Zoology, tackles taxidermy and its inclusion in Artist: Unknown.

Podcast
Museum of Classical Archaeology
Spoken word
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Royal relationships explored through crockery

Artwork
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Listen to poems written by Year 8 students from Cromwell Community College as part of a Heritage Fund project called 'Pacific Currents'.

Poetry
Whipple Museum of the History of Science
Spoken word
The Fitzwilliam Museum

16th-century knights led dangerous lives

 

Film
The Fitzwilliam Museum

How should we approach the Queen who became a symbol of the British Empire itself?

 

 

Film
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Nicholas Thomas, Director at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, talks about a 19th / early 20th century barkcloth.

Podcast
Cambridge University Botanic Garden 

Meet Titus, the titan arum plant with a very distinctive smell.

Livestream
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

Dive into the miniature world of tiny marine creatures

 

Spoken word
The Fitzwilliam Museum

New clothes for a Queen who became a symbol of the British Empire

Artwork
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Behind the scenes on Facebook Live in the paper conservation studio with Harry Metcalf, Conservator of Works of Art on Paper, and Hannah Price, UCM Programme Coordinator.

Livestream
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Listen to poems written by Year 8 students from Cromwell Community College as part of a Heritage Fund project called 'Pacific Currents'.

Poetry
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Whipple Museum of the History of Science, The Polar Museum, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Museum of Classical Archaeology

Objects from the University of Cambridge Museums as you've never seen them before...

Artwork, Digital Exhibition
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

The human body is a museum

Artwork
Museum of Classical Archaeology

A tiny figurine head from Roman Egypt

Film
Museum of Classical Archaeology

An online exhibition exploring archaeological practice today, with original artwork by Zofia Guertin and Sofia Greaves.

Digital Exhibition, Shorthand
Museum of Zoology

Meet Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Tour guide Tim Drummond and the Museum of Zoology's Emperor Penguin

Film
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

The Whipple Museum of the History of Science as an institution is not neutral. A response to the colonial 1875 Jigsaw Globe on display in the Museum’s Globe Gallery.

Audio
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Enjoy a virtual view of MAA's uly 2022 - April 2023 exhibition, showcasing collections from across our museums, libraries and colleges.

Digital Exhibition
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

A mask with many unheard stories

Film
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

This piece concerns Mary Anning's Icthyosaur in the Sedgwick museum. What stories of power and memory, gender and colonialism, could this ichthyosaur bring to life?

Audio
The Fitzwilliam Museum

How the Saka people of the Great Steppe made history and great art.

Digital Exhibition
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Even the small sounds of an afternoon can be significant, when you can hear them

Artwork
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Enjoy a tour of the Sedgwick Museum's new Collections Research Centre.

Film
Museum of Classical Archaeology

This piece concerns four broken terracotta figurines from Naukratis, a Greek trading post in Egypt from the Museum of Classical Archaeology. 

Audio, Soundscape
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

A small plate with a big story

Film
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Find out more about the oldest modern bird fossil from the age of dinosaurs

Digital Exhibition, Film, Shorthand
Museum of Zoology

Take an LGBTQ+ tour of the Museum of Zoology. 

Talk
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

For Museum Remix: Unheard, Liz Hide and Helen Ritchie answer questions about their Museum Remix objects live on YouTube

Livestream
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Spoken word
Museum of Zoology

A new exhibition at Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology illuminates the beautiful, turbulent history of butterflies across the UK.

Digital Exhibition
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

This piece concerns the Iguanodon fossil cast in the Sedgwick museum.

Audio
The Fitzwilliam Museum

The combined histories of botanical science and warfare

Artwork
The Polar Museum

A well-travelled typewriter

 

Film
Museum of Classical Archaeology
Spoken word
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Livestream
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Spoken word
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Prehistoric necklaces inspire an intriguing poem

Poetry, Spoken word
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Diamonds with a dark past

 

Film
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Enjoy a large collection of paper valentines courtesy of Dr Rebecca Virag and The Fitzwilliam Museum

Livestream
The Fitzwilliam Museum

How do you make sure you pass successfully into the Ancient Egyptian afterlife? This Facebook Live video takes us to the Fitzwilliam Museum to visit the Book of the Dead of Ramose.

Livestream
The Polar Museum

Travel to windswept Greenland with a trusty typewriter as your guide

Artwork
The Polar Museum

A portrait that reveals the relationship between exploration and exploitation

Film
Museum of Classical Archaeology

Enjoy an online exhibition featuring five colour lithographs and one etching by New Zealand artist Marian Maguire, who imagines how the passing millennia might have affected the traditional roles of the ancient Greek goddesses. 

Artwork, Digital Exhibition
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Early in lockdown, the Getty Museum challenged social media users to recreate artworks from its collection using household objects.

Artwork, Digital Exhibition, Shorthand
Cambridge University Botanic Garden 

Remember Titus, Cambridge University Botanic Garden’s stinky corpse flower? He’s had babies...

Livestream
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Hear the gossip from the royal court... 

Spoken word
Kettle's Yard

A portrait of an unknown woman

Film
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
Spoken word
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Museum of Classical Archaeology

For Museum Remix: Unheard, Sade Ojelade and Eleanor Wilkinson answer your questions about their chosen objects live on YouTube

Livestream
Museum of Classical Archaeology
Spoken word
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Theo Sayers imagines the story behind an archive photograph in the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences.

Music
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

How do we untangle complex colonial histories to reach the unnamed sitter of these portraits?

Film
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Meet the French Empress and her botanical namesake

Artwork
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Ellen, a volunteer LGBTQ+ tour guide for the University of Cambridge Museums, talks about a statue representing Durga, found in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Talk
Museum of Classical Archaeology

A twist of the hand is an exhibition in the Museum of Classical Archaeology, featuring works by Norwich-based artist James Epps.

Artwork, Digital Exhibition
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Meet a pioneering geologist, motorcyclist and spy...

Film
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Take a look at the Sedgwick Museum archive from a different narrative.
 

Digital Exhibition, Shorthand
The Polar Museum

Julia, a volunteer LGBTQ+ tour guide at The Polar Museum, talks to us about an egg laid by an Adélie penguin in the early 20th century.

Film
The Fitzwilliam Museum

An audience with collectors Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon

Film
The Polar Museum

Charlotte Connelly, Curator at The Polar Museum, tells us about some atmospheric ink drawings and scrimshaw created by whalers voyaging in the Arctic.

Podcast
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

Josh Nall, Curator of Modern Sciences at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, talks about the makers who aim to deceive.

Podcast
Museum of Classical Archaeology

An exhibition of photographs by Robert McCabe

Digital Exhibition
Museum of Classical Archaeology
Spoken word
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

‘This Globe is Broken’. A poem about how the globe as an object is not neutral. A response to the colonial 1875 Jigsaw Globe on display in the Whipple Museum’s Globe Gallery.

Audio, Poetry
The Fitzwilliam Museum

"An unbroken marriage of souls"

Artwork
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

View an online exhibition by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, celebrating Te Atairangikaahu, Māori Queen.

Digital Exhibition
The Fitzwilliam Museum

An "unbroken marriage of souls"

Film
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Meet Antinous, the boy who became a god...

Spoken word
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Photograph with an untold story

Film
Kettle's Yard

Eliza Spindel, Curatorial and Research Assistant at Kettle's Yard, tells us about a tea bowl from Kettle's Yard and a case of mistaken identity.

Podcast
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Mathelinda Nabugodi investigates the impact of colonialism and the slave trade on Romantic poets.

Shorthand
The Fitzwilliam Museum

A major exhibition explores the evolution of island identity on Cyprus, Crete and Sardinia from the Neolithic to the Romans

Shorthand
Whipple Museum of the History of Science
Spoken word
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Imogen Gunn, Collections Manager at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, talks to Nick Oram about a rude Roman pot. 

Livestream
Museum of Classical Archaeology

A statue is given a voice

Music
The Polar Museum

Discover the origins of the Scott Polar Research Institute as they celebrate 100 years of pioneering research. 

Digital Exhibition, Shorthand
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Rebecca Virag talks about the making and meaning of a portfolio of lithographic prints which were commissioned by the British Government’s propaganda department in 1917.

Livestream
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

Why does the Whipple Museum of the History of Science have a Scientology E-meter?

Livestream
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

Next time you are in a museum, think about what items might have been used for, and what kind of society might have created them...

Artwork
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Listen to poems written by Year 8 students from Cromwell Community College as part of a Heritage Fund project called 'Pacific Currents'.

Poetry
Whipple Museum of the History of Science

Who gets to define disability?

Artwork
Kettle's Yard
Film
Museum of Classical Archaeology

How can we give voice to an enslaved woman who died two thousand years ago?

Film
Museum of Zoology

Discover the evolutionary tale of the chimpanzee and bonobo.

Film, Talk
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

A poem that gives voice to the unknown subject of two 19th-century photographs

Poetry, Spoken word
Museum of Classical Archaeology
Spoken word
The Fitzwilliam Museum

Helen Ritchie, Research Assistant at The Fitzwilliam Museum, talks about samplers and the role they played for young women in the 17th and 18th century.

Podcast
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Game Designer Elizabeth Simoens invites Exhibitions and Display Coordinator at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Rob Theodore, to her island to visit the museum.

Digital Exhibition, Game, Livestream
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Take a tour of the exhibition ‘Church and the Ancestors: Sacred pir mats from Asmat, Papua, Indonesia’.

Digital Exhibition, Talk
The Polar Museum

Brace yourself for a digital exhibition featuring work by artists who specialise in the polar regions.

Artwork, Digital Exhibition