Permanent Exhibitions

The main museum displays are in two large galleries of the first floor of Marischal College. One now displaying the collections of local material (the Encyclopaedia of the North-East), was designed as the college library in 1837 and still contains the original elaborate woodwork, while the other, although designed and used as a museum, has been completely modernised with a steel mezzanine floor to display the collections from the rest of the world (Collecting the World). Temporary exhibitions are held in specially designed areas of both galleries.

Encyclopeadia of the North-East
The only permanent exhibition devoted to the character of this important region of Scotland, many hundreds of objects, photographs and quotations are displayed to illustrate the area from the first settlers of 8000 years ago to the present day. The exhibition is arranged in alphabetical order to create some surprising juxtapostions of objects of different ages and functions and to encourage visitors to reflect on ideas of classification and order.

Material on display includes items associated with the history of the University such as the maces of King's and Marischal Colleges, prehistoric beakers, carved stone balls, flint tools and Pictish stones. More recent objects relating to fishing, farming, and folklore of the North-East are also exhibited, while the copy of the local newspaper, the Press and Journal, is replaced frequently to emphasise the contemporary concerns of the exhibition. Some of the highlights of the University's other collections, such as paintings, scientific instruments, and natural history specimens are also displayed in this exhibition.

Collecting the World
The museum's collections of material from throughout the world are displayed in a permanent exhibition that explores how they came to be in them museum. Starting with a reconstruction of a collector's study, the collecting activities of graduates and friends of the university is investigated in this gallery. There is also a reconstruction of part of the Marischal College Museum of 1833, displaying a diverse range of curiosities, including an Ancient Egyptian coffin, a late 18th century Maori wooden box and a medieval silver chain found under Marischal College.

The rest of the exhibition focuses on a number of different collectors, including:

Robert Wilson (1787-1871), a medical graduate of Marischal College and member of the East India Company who subsequently followed in the footsteps of Alexander the Great throughout the Near East.

Sir William MacGregor, Imperial Governor of New Guinea, Lagos (Nigeria), Newfoundland and Queensland in the early 20th century.

Captain William Mitchell (1802-1876), trader and ship's captain with the Hudson's Bay Company, collecting primarily in British Columbia.

Margaret Hasluck, a graduate of Aberdeen and Cambridge who travelled and collected in the Balkans, settling in Albania until fleeing invasion in 1943.

General Sir James Macdonald, Escort Commander of the Younghusband expedition to Tibet in 1903.

Rev Frederick Bowie and Jeannie Mutch, missionaries in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) in the early 20th century.

Dr James Grant (Bey), a medical graduate of the University and physician at the court of the Khedive of Egypt who amassed a large collection of Egyptian antiquities.