About the Cabinet of Curiosities

This virtual Cabinet of Curiosities has been created in celebration of the centenary of the University of Bristol. It showcases 100 objects from across the University’s wonderful and diverse museum and archive collections. Did you know the University has the skeleton of the last polar bear to be kept at Bristol Zoo? Would you like to take a look inside Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s sketchbook? Enter the Cabinet of Curiosities.

About the collections

The collections participating in the Cabinet of Curiosities include:

• Archaeology and Anthropology Collections (Department of Archaeology and Anthropology)
• Botanic Garden (School of Biological Sciences)
• CHOMBEC: Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth (Department of Music)
• Geology Museum (Department of Earth Sciences)
• Special Collections (University Library )
• Spelaeological Society Museum
• Theatre Collection (Department of Drama)
• Veterinary Anatomy Museum (Department of Anatomy)

• The collections are invaluable resources for teaching and research at the University of Bristol, and some of them are open to the public.

  

  What is a cabinet of curiosities?

  Cabinets of curiosities were the first incarnations of what we now call museums. Initially created in the sixteenth century by wealthy aristocrats, they were rooms crammed full of collected specimens of natural history, artworks, antiquities and other historical artefacts. Cabinets were both sources of inspiration and wonder, and important resources for academic research.

  The illustration shows the famous cabinet of curiosities belonging to Ole Worm. Find it in the virtual Cabinet of Curiosities for more information.