Collecting the Life of the County

The County Council cares for a wide range collections of objects, works of art, archives and information, which show how Leicestershire has changed from the earliest times to the present day.

Some of the most important collections can be seen on our Collections Online website.

What's in the collections? | Using the collections | Adding to the collections | Collections Management Policy

The museum service's collections contain a rich variety of objects which reflect different aspects of Leicestershire Life, including: archaeology, domestic and working history, costume, art, archives, botany, geology and zoology. They are supported by associated information that gives the historical, cultural and scientific context to each collection.

Descriptions of the collections may be found on the following pages:

The Open Museum's collections contain material available for loan to schools, community groups and other relevant organisations for use in their own venues.

We maintain the collections in good order for future generations and aim to make them as widely accessible as possible through exhbitions, events, talks, loan schemes, community projects, publications, research visits and on the web. Please see the following pages for further information:

The museum collections have been accumulated over the past 150 years and continue to grow.

To help to focus our collecting activities we have developed a series of themes, which span all of the types of collection. All of the themes relate directly to the over-riding principle that we collect to record Leicestershire Life, past and present, in all of its variety.

Our current themes are:

If you have objects you would like to donate to the museum service collections, please contact:

Heritage Services
County Hall
Glenfield
Leicester
LE3 8RA

Tel: 0116 305 8320
Email: museums@leics.gov.uk

The foundation of all our collections related activities is our Collections Management Policy. This sets out in detail what and why we collect, how we provdide access to collections and how we care for them so they continue to be enjoyed by future generations.