Discover our collections

Temporary change to Discover for museum and archive collections

From 1 August, our online database for museum and archive collections will be available through a temporary version of Discover, due to the work required for the migration to our new and improved search system.

• To search our online database for museum and archive collections, please use the Discover search box on this page/above/below [delete as necessary]
• For all other items, including our library collections, please visit https://discover.durham.ac.uk/

For more information, visit our website.

Durham University library, archive and museum collections are now available online in a single resource discovery system.

Select 'Museums and Collections' in the search box above and you will obtain results from all of Durham University's Museums, Archives and Special Collections and departmental collections. Try searching 'everything' to produce a combined set of results including library and other online resources encompassing objects, books, articles, e-resources and Durham University research.

If you wish to narrow your search to the museum collections only, put in your search term and make your search. When your results appear look for the second drop down box marked 'Museums and collections' to the right of the first in the search box. Click here and select 'Durham museums' and your results will be narrowed to exclude archives and departmental collections. Alternatively use the 'Refine my results' box on the right to select 'objects' or if you are searching for photographs or other visual works select 'images'.

More than 51,000 object records from across the Oriental Museum, Museum of Archaeology, Durham Castle and the University Art Collection are included on the database. Just over 38,000 of these objects have been photographed. If you wish to refine your search to only select those objects with photographs, use the 'Refine my Results' section on the right hand side of the results page and under 'Availability' select 'Full text online'. This will narrow your results to only those objects with images.

Important to Note

This is a working database and not a finished catalogue.

We are constantly working to improve our database and new records and images are added regularly. Existing records are also constantly being revised to add new research. However, this also means that not all entries are complete, and some may contain errors from typing mistakes to misidentifications.

It is important to understand how objects were viewed in the past. As such, we use our database to preserve all information ever recorded about our collections. This means that historic or outdated terms may be included in some database entries, some of these terms may be offensive or discriminatory.

External Resources

Some objects from our collections are also available to view online via external resources. These can be found under ‘Additional Links’ on the right hand side of this page.

If you require more detailed information on our collections please look at the researching the collections section of this website.