WHAT?
What is a collection?

A collection is a group of things gathered or collected. People collect different things. The Boston Children's Museum collection began in 1912 with a donation of rocks and minerals. Today it includes more than 50,000 items.

Every object the Children’s Museum collection has a story. Where was it collected and what did it mean to the person who saved it. Objects can tell us a lot about the people who once owned or used them. Natural history specimens can teach us about size, form, color, and function of things in the natural world. Historical objects teach people about important events and people, or everyday life in the past.

What is in the BCM collection?

The Museum’s collection includes cultural artifacts and natural history specimens. There are six main  collecting areas: Native American, Japanese, Americana, Global Dolls, General Cultural Collections, and Natural History.

A cultural object, also called an artifact, is something made by a person. An artifact's appearance, how it was made,  and how it was used can tell us about the person who made it and about time in which the person lived.

A natural history object, sometimes called a "specimen," can be an animal, insect, rock, shell or plant. The Museum’s collection also includes fossils of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.

You can see objects from the Museum’s collections in both exhibits and programs.