Departmental Collections

Entrance to the McPherson CollectionAnna McPherson Collection

The McPherson Collection is comprised of antique physical instruments and apparatus dating from the mid-19th century to about 1920, which were used in teaching and scientific research at McGill.


Architectural drawings of monumental buildingsArchitectural Slide Library

The slide library at the School of Architecture dates back to the 1890s, and it includes many architectural drawings and excerpts from treatises, some taken from books.


Lava running down hillsMedia Resource Collection

The Visual Resource Collection serves to acquire and provide resources for professors and students in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies in preparing slides for teaching, research and study.


Entrance to the Ernest Rutherford CollectionErnest Rutherford Collection

The Rutherford Museum contains the apparatus used by Nobel Prize winner Ernest Rutherford when he was Professor of Experimental Physics at McGill from 1898-1907.


Great Golden Digger WaspLyman Entomological Museum and Research Laboratory

The Lyman Entomological Museum was founded in 1914 with a bequest from the noted lepidopterist Henry Herbert Lyman (1854-1914). Lyman’s collection of 20,000 butterflies and moths formed the nucleus of the Museum collection, which was augmented over the years by substantial collections of other insects contributed by curators such as Albert Winn, George Moore, Keith Kevan and Vic Vickery.


Herbarium specimen Ledum groenlandicumMcGill University Herbarium

The Herbarium is one of McGill's earliest collections. It was founded in 1856 with the gifts of the private collections of Dr. Andrew Fernando Holmes and Principal Sir William Dawson. Holmes (1797-1860) was a well-known cardiovascular specialist and the first Dean of McGill's Faculty of Medicine. He was also a founder of the Montreal Natural History Society, and actively collected plant specimens in the Montreal area from 1820-1825.


Three chambered heart derived in 1822 from an autopsy performed by Andrew HolmesMaude Abbott Medical Museum

The McGill Medical Museum originated as a collection of specimens donated by physicians associated with its Medical School. Among the earliest of these was a three chambered heart derived in 1822 from an autopsy performed by Andrew Holmes, first Dean of the McGill Medical Faculty. In 1826, an adult skeleton was donated by John Stephenson, a cofounder with Holmes of the Medical Faculty and its first Professor of Anatomy. The Holmes heart and Stephenson's skeleton are the oldest specimens in the museum today. 


Scale Model from the Orson Wheeler CollectionOrson Wheeler Collection of Architectural Models

Orson Wheeler (1902-1990) was a sculptor and teacher at Concordia University who created scale models of over 200 architectural buildings from around the world in Roma Plastilina (plasticine). He bequeathed the collection to the School, and they are presently used for teaching.

Back to top