Exhibit Overview
The museum celebrates 100 years of collecting—gathering artifacts and the knowledge that surrounds them—and connecting—relating people, artifacts, information, and ideas to one another. We sketch the story of the museum over its history, providing glimpses of the collections, individuals, and events that shaped its growth. The selection of artifacts reflects how its educational scope evolved over the decades from an interest in mostly western cultures to a more global approach. To celebrate the birthday of Lincoln Hall, there is a special feature on our 89 years in that building on the quad, showing the original home of the early smaller museums that eventually became the Spurlock Museum. Tucked in the rafters of this long-standing center of the humanities, the museum would only move to its own building in 2000. Read more about the Museum's history...
Other sections of the exhibit discuss the people, projects, and philosophies that have shaped the museum's history.
- Like many museums of the past, we have created a cabinet of curiosities so that visitors can explore some of the remarkable and varied pieces in our collections, most of which have never been on display.
- To learn what happens to artifacts behind the scenes, follow an ancient clay cow through a cartoon of its history on campus. This story is revealed by records kept and research done since the cow came to the museum in 1915.
- Photographs and videos illustrate hundreds of individuals who make up the life of the museum.
- In planning for this exhibit, we asked our visitors as well as campus cultural centers to choose some of the artifacts to be included. You can find their selections accompanied by information on the diverse pieces and thoughts on the challenges of selecting individual artifacts to represent big ideas like culture, history, and the human experience.