Donate an Object

We’d love to hear from you if you have an object that you think might be suitable for our collection, but please don’t bring it to us or send it by post without speaking to us first.

So that we can assess whether the Research and Cultural Collections would make a good home for your object, you’ll need to send us as much information as possible, including:

A photograph of the object
Background information - a brief summary of any relevant information or personal stories including how the object came into your possession

If you are considering offering an item to the collection, please contact the Research and Cultural Collections team by email or post:

Research and Cultural Collections

University of Birmingham

32 Pritchatts Road

Edgbaston

Birmingham

B15 2SD

Our guiding principles

We collect material with a strong connection to University of Birmingham history with the below guiding our decision. We aim:

To collect material that helps to tell the story of the University of Birmingham and understand its history, communities and collections more fully
To collect material that represents historical and contemporary research strengths, including their development, application and impact to society
To increase representation of underrepresented groups within all collections and better reflect diverse stories on campus; with a particular focus on objects which explore stories of global majority communities, disability, LGBTQ+ and women
To enrich all collections through the collecting of time-based media including oral histories, photography and film
To enhance the campus environment for the wellbeing of staff, students and visitors

What happens next?

Every item offered is considered carefully by the RCC team in relation to our collecting policy and existing collections. We will contact you to let you know an outcome after it has been considered at the Collections Development Group. This group meets quarterly and considers all new acquisitions.

It is not always possible for us to accept everything offered for the following reasons:

We already hold similar examples in the collection
The object is more appropriate for a different museum
There is little associated information with it or no link to the University of Birmingham’s history
The item is in poor condition or contains hazardous material and therefore would be difficult to preserve
The object does not fall within our collecting remit (our full collections development policy is here for further information)
The object does not have a clear provenance (i.e. there is no supporting documentation to identify the object’s origins)