Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It stands on the university’s Downing Site in central Cambridge. The museum is the oldest of the eight that form the University of Cambridge Museums consortium. Its collections began with Dr John Woodward’s specimens, now housed in five walnut cabinets. Adam Sedgwick expanded the collection and secured space for it in the Cockerill Building. The present museum was built under Thomas McKenny Hughes and opened in 1904 in a ceremony attended by King Edward VII. The museum holds around two million rocks, minerals and fossils spanning 4.5 billion years. Among its notable holdings are the Mineral Collections with 40,000 to 55,000 specimens from around the world. The ‘Beagle’ Collection includes rocks and fossils collected by Charles Darwin during his voyage on HMS Beagle. The Harker Collection and the Maurice Black Sedimentary Petrology Collection add further depth. The Palaeontological Collection alone contains over a million fossils. The museum also preserves Adam Sedgwick’s field notebooks and the records of the Sedgwick Club, the world’s oldest student-run geological society. Visitors find displays in the Mineral Gallery and the main galleries arranged by geological period. A large portrait bust of the young Charles Darwin was unveiled during a 2009 exhibition marking the Darwin bicentenary. The museum’s logo is based on an Iguanodon skeleton mounted near the entrance. Temporary exhibitions, workshops and family activities take place regularly. The collections continue to support research, learning and public enjoyment of Earth sciences.