• Museum entrance
  • Downing Street view of Museum
  • Museum steps
  • Tower
  • Museum gallery

Travel through time…

The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences is the oldest of the University of Cambridge museums, having been established in 1728 as the Woodwardian Museum. Since then the collection has grown from about 10,000 fossils, minerals and rocks, to at least 2 million. A walk through the museum will take you on a 4.5 billion year journey through time, from the meteoritic building blocks of planets, to the thousands of fossils of animals and plants that illustrate the evolution of life in the oceans, on land and in the air. Also a major teaching and research resource in the Department of Earth Sciences, the Sedgwick Museum collections are a national treasure.

School Bookings Visiting
 

Earth Stories - The latest geological news Collections Up Close
 


The Sedgwick Bicentenary Meeting

Saturday 22nd September 2018

A one-day conference bringing together international scientists to mark 200 years since Adam Sedgwick was appointed to the Woodwardian Chair of Geology.

Further information >

Monday to Friday
10:00 to 13:00 & 14:00 to 17:00

Saturday
10:00 to 16:00 

Sunday
Closed

 




Sedgwick 200!

Celebrating 200 years since Adam Sedgwick (1775-1873) became the 7th Woodwardian Professor 21st May 1818.
[More]

A new Director for the Sedgwick Museum

Dr Elizabeth Harper has been appointed Acting Director of the Sedgwick Museum following the retirement of Dr Ken McNamara.
[More]

Woodwardian Professor 100 years ago - 30th October 1917

Celebrating 100 years since John Edward Marr (1857-1933) became the 9th Woodwardian Professor, Monday 30th October: Visit our online Archive gallery

[More]

 

Publications

'Tools of the Trade'
Available to purchase in the Sedgwick Museum shop

Tools of the Trade

Agostino Scilla's
'Vain Speculation Undeceived by Sense'
English translation available to download.
Agostino Scilla download

Our Rocks are on the Move!
We are reuniting our important rock collections under one roof! Can you help support the building of our new Sedgwick Museum Collections store? Read more and donate here

Friends of the Sedgwick Museum prizewinners give us their thoughts on their time at the Museum in 2016
Click here to read

Work Experience at the Sedgwick - read about our latest student to visit us for two weeks and experience life in a Museum. 

Studying Earth Sciences at Cambridge University

Did you know?
The University of Cambridge is listed at the top of The Complete University's Guide 2016 for geology.

Discover more about studying Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge in this video featuring Museum Curator of Mineralogy and Petrology Professor Marian Holness and Sir David Attenborough