Manchester Museum has an outstanding collection of approximately 140,000 specimens from all over the world.
Enthusiastic members of the Manchester Geological Society started the collection in 1838. The original Manchester Museum on Peter Street, included some spectacular geology. Some of the highlights were a large Ichthyosaur (on display in the museum today), a hexagonal basalt pillar from the Giant’s Causeway and models of famous diamonds.
Manchester Museum has a collection of around 100,000 fossils ranging from fossil algae from the dawn of life hundreds of millions of years ago, to ferns, Ice Age animals and dinosaurs.
The mineral collection contains a wide range of stunning specimens, which include meteorites, gemstones, ore samples and rare minerals. The rock collection contains a diverse range of objects, which include building stones, volcanic rocks, and coal.
The Museum has one of the most important collections of Ice Age animals in Europe, particularly from Creswell Crags. It has helped transform our understanding of climate change. The fossils from Creswell Crags give a rare glimpse into what was happening at the extreme northerly edge of life in the last Ice Age and a window into the world of the first people to live in Britain.