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Museum Studies

Library resources useful to students studying museum administration, history, curation and exhibitions.

Welcome

This guide includes key references for Museum Studies resources. It should be used as a supplement to specific subject guides in related disciplines like History, Biology, American Studies, Education, Art History, and Presentation Design.

Starting Points

Museum Studies Program - The Museum Studies Program is an interdisciplinary course of study designed to provide students with academic training in essential aspects of museology.  The curriculum equips students with a range of museum skills and enables them to tailor learning to their career objectives.

Maxwell Museum of Anthropology - The staff, students and volunteers at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology work together to study, preserve, partner, and present the human story from our origins more than 2.5 million years ago to today.

UNM Art Museum - The University of New Mexico Art Museum was founded in 1962 with a mission to serve as a teaching museum for the University’s faculty and students. Since opening its doors, the UNMAM permanent collection has grown to fulfill that purpose—assembling the largest collection of artwork in New Mexico over the course of six decades.

Museum of Southwestern Biology - The Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) is one of the finest university-based natural history museums nationwide.MSB serves the national and international scientific community by providing an extensive informatics resource on biodiversity to an international scientific community. 

Meteorite Museum - The Meteorite Museum, as part of the Institute of Meteoritics, opened in 1974 and is a major educational resource for the university and New Mexico schools. The museum displays many fine samples of stony, stony iron, and iron meteorites from the institute’s collection.

Harwood Museum - The Harwood Museum of Art of the University of New Mexico collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets the arts, especially those created in, inspired by, or relevant to northern New Mexico. The museum advances the University’s mission and engages diverse audiences by stimulating learning, creativity and research through exhibitions, programs and publications.

Geology Museum - The Silver Family Geology Museum was established in the 1930s by Stuart Northrop and provides public exhibits of mineral, fossil, and rock specimens. The material on display represents a small portion of the geological collections of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections - The University of New Mexico's Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections (CSWR) specializes in preserving historical manuscripts, books, photographs, architectural drawings, recordings, and other library materials relating to New Mexico, the Southwestern U.S., and Latin America. It also houses the UNM University Archives, as well as a collection of rare books on various topics from around the world.