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Class Visits

An integral part of the Peabody Museum's mission is to make collections accessible to the Harvard community, and to provide instructors, students, and staff with opportunities for collections-based learning. Harvard faculty and teaching fellows are encouraged to engage with collections as part of their course curricula.

To explore what the Peabody Museum may have to offer your class, you can begin by searching Collections Online to identify relevant collections. To submit your collections request, use the online Collections Access Request Form. You may also use this form to request a conversation with museum staff, to discuss how you might incorporate collections into your course teaching.

Possibilities for your classroom include:

Class Visits

  • Direct engagement with collections within Peabody Museum Viewing Rooms and storage spaces
  • Student assignments built around collections research
  • Guest lectures from museum staff
  • Course-related teaching displays, curated by museum staff, or curated by your students with staff supervision
  • Workshops for your students or TFs

Please contact staff as you prepare for next semester’s courses so that we may best accommodate your requests and develop content specific to your course needs. Remember class visits require a minimum of two weeks' advance notice. Staff-curated teaching displays require one month’s advance notice. Student-curated teaching displays must be requested prior to the start of the semester.

 

Collections Access Request Form

Collections-Based Teaching and Learning

Viewed from different perspectives, museum collections provide multiple narratives, making collections powerful agents for teaching and learning.

The Peabody Museum’s Academic Partnerships Department offers collections-based learning opportunities unique within Harvard University.

  • Have hands-on engagements with worldwide collections
  • Work with expert staff to identify collections relevant to course themes
  • Develop specialized workshops and activities for teaching or research
  • Conduct original, primary source research
  • Learn about collections-based teaching and learning from Peabody Museum staff

If you are interested in using collections at the Peabody Museum for teaching or research, contact Academic Partnerships staff via the Peabody Museum Collections Access Request form. Please allow at least two weeks advance notice. The more time staff has, the better they can serve course needs.