Introduction to The Fitzwilliam Museum Online Catalogue

The online catalogue is the 'public window' into the records stored in the Museum's centralised collections management database. The collections management database was adopted in November 1999 as a result of funding from MLA's Designation Challenge Fund. Over 110,000 records are available online and over 38,000 of these records have digital images attached.

A work in progress

The museum has over 500,000 objects in its care. You can read more about the history of the museum and its collections here. Over 120,000 catalogue records have so far been transferred to the centralised collections management database (representing an estimated 20% of the collection). This is on-going work and from time to time the online catalogue is updated to reflect new records and images which have become available.

The records currently available are:

• Antiquities - over 23,000
• Applied Arts - over 11,000
  (including sculpture, porcelain, pottery, glass, tiles, netsuke, armour, weapons, lacquer boxes, pot-lids and Korean ceramics)
• Coins and Medals - over 24,000
• Manuscripts and Printed Books - over 20,000
  (including the Linnell Archive)
• Paintings, Drawing and Prints - over 35,000
  (all the paintings, most of the drawings and many of the prints)

The Museum’s holdings of printed books can be searched online at the University of Cambridge Union Catalogue. 

Disclaimer

While every effort has been made to ensure that the records are accurate, the level of detail they contain at this stage varies throughout the collection.  Also note that the inclusion of a record in the catalogue does not mean they currently are on display in the Museum.

Your views

We would welcome your feedback on the catalogue and its contents.