As a collecting museum, we are constantly reflecting on what it means to steward and care for specimens from our planet.
The Pacific Museum of Earth’s collections have been built over nearly a century through research, teaching, fieldwork, and donations. Together, these minerals, rocks, and fossils help us understand Earth’s history, support scientific research, enrich university teaching, and inspire curiosity in visitors of all ages.
Caring for collections involves much more than storage. It includes conservation, documentation, digitization, research, and ensuring that specimens remain accessible to students, researchers, educators, and the public. As technologies and museum practices evolve, so too does our responsibility to preserve these collections and share their stories in meaningful ways.
Support for the Collections Care & Preservation Fund helps us catalogue, conserve, digitize, photograph, and improve access to our collections, ensuring that these irreplaceable records of Earth’s history remain available for generations to come.
Current Priorities
Gifts to the Collections Care & Preservation Fund help support projects such as:
- Improving storage systems and conservation practices for mineral, rock, and fossil collections.
- Digitizing collections through photography, cataloguing, and 3D scanning.
- Expanding access to collection records for researchers, students, and the public.
- Conserving and restoring specimens that require specialized care.
- Supporting student training and hands-on learning opportunities in collections management.
- Preserving the knowledge, documentation, and histories associated with our collections.