Collections

The Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich has a large collection of ethnographic objects from all over the world, stored in three depots and tended to by curators and restorers. Furthermore the museum has a textual archive, visual archive, sound archive and film archive, which are accessible for teaching and research.

The collections and archives are not accessible to the public, but rather are reserved for scholars and research – with the exception of the film archive, which can be accessed via the online data bank Moving Pictures and can be viewed at the library. The sound documents from all over the world can be accessed via a listening station of the Swiss National Sound Archives.

Our collections are frequently shown in publicly accessible exhibitions. Further, articles, books and films about the collections are produced and published at the museum. These are available for purchase at the museum reception or can be ordered by e-mail.