Hotels near the Pitt Rivers Museum

The Pitt Rivers Museum is the ethnographic museum of Oxford University, a treasure trove of man's creations from all over the world. Discover artefacts from a witch in a bottle to Hawaiian feather cloaks and a Kalabari household shrine.

Founded in 1884 after Lieutenant-General Augustus Lane Fox Pitt Rivers donated 18,000 artefacts to Oxford University, the Pitt Rivers Museum has grown to now house approximately half a million items and is one of the most comprehensive ethnographic collections in the world.

The museum's three-storey Victorian display hall is crammed with an extensive variety of curious objects from forgotten cultures. Items are categorised by purpose rather than their geographic origin, so visitors can compare tools and complementary innovations from disparate nations.