Welcome to the University Museums!
Located in different buildings across campus, Mechanical Hall, Old College Hall, and Penny Hall, our Museums are all around us.
Old College
Penny Hall
We are here to help you engage with, study, and research many thousands of works of art, artifacts, and mineral specimens in the collections. Visitors can explore their curiosity through rotating exhibitions that draw from the collections and from loaned objects. Strengths of the art collection include arts of the United States and within that, a large collection of art by African American artists, and art and cultural materials by Indigenous artists and makers. The art collections also include rich and varied holdings of photography, important sculptures, European prints, modern and contemporary art, and art by faculty and alumni. The historic mineral collection is rich in specimens from the early days of gemstone mining in the United States and in South America, and also contains minerals recently discovered. With approximately 350 specimens on view from a collection of more than 3000 specimens, frequent change allows the visitor to see new acquisitions. The robust and frequently changing exhibitions across an array of subjects reflects the University’s curriculum and current events, with many involving faculty and student co-curators.
Every year, the Museums staff collaborate with faculty from various disciplines to integrate exhibitions and objects from the collections into courses and assignments. If you are interested in incorporating a visit to a gallery or study room into your class, please contact us through this email: universitymuseums@udel.edu.
In 2016, the Museums became part of the University of Delaware Library, Museums, and Press, forming a new division that includes both Museums and Special Collections. Since the creation of the Special Collections and Museums division, staff have collaborated on several co-curated exhibitions. Some examples include Drawing Connections: Illustration and the Written Word, Beat Visions and the Counterculture, and Friends and Enemies: Whistler and his Artistic, Literary, and Social Circles.
We hope you’ll stop in to immerse yourself in an exhibition or attend an event. Our exhibitions, galleries, and programs are free and open to everyone!
Mechanical Hall