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Monday 12pm - 5pm Tuesday 10am - 5pm Wednesday 10am - 5pm Thursday 10am - 5pm Friday 10am - 5pm Saturday 10am - 5pm Sunday 10am - 5pm

Pitt Rivers Museum

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Welcome to the official Pitt Rivers Museum page. Please check our website for Christmas and Easter opening.
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The Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford is home to some of the most important collections of ethnography and archaeology in the world. Entry to the Museum is through the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on Parks Road. For information on transport and access please see: http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/visit.html

On this page we'll keep you posted about exhibitions, special events and

latest news. It is also a place to leave your comments and share photos. A quick note on commenting:
This page is an open forum where anyone is welcome to contribute. Discussion is encouraged, but please be aware that any offensive, defamatory, obscene or harassing comments or personal attacks of any kind will be removed. Spamming, repeat submissions of the same (or very similar) contributions or content that is off-topic may also be removed.

01/06/2026

On Friday 29 May the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Scheme unveiled a new plaque commemorating Beatrice Blackwood, a pioneering anthropologist and curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, who worked in the Museum from the late 1930s until a few days before her death in 1975. The plaque was funded by a generous donation from the Members of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

https://www.oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/blackwood.html

Image (From left to right): Chewe Munkonge (Lord Mayor of Oxford), Professor Christopher Morton (Pitt Rivers Museum), Councillor Ted Fenton (Oxfordshire County Council) & Professor Robert Evans (Chair of the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board)

30/05/2026

Book your ticket for this year's Beatrice Blackwood Lecture with Professor Lady Sue Black and pre-order her latest book 'An Expert Witness: Forensic Evidence on Trial' due to be published in early July. In this book she uses shocking landmark cases to tell the story of forensic science, asking in which cases did justice prevail and when and why did things go wrong? In the Lecture Professor Lady Sue Black will talk about her extraordinary career and there will be an opportunity after the talk to get books signed. Friday 17 July, 17.00-19.00. Tickets: £15/£10 (plus £22 for the book).

The talk will be held at St John's College and the ticket price includes a drinks reception after the talk.

https://bit.ly/4cree8F

29/05/2026

Make a date to pop into the Museum on Friday 26 June when we will be hosting a live guqin performance on the Clore Balcony with Hetian Lyu, a 7th-generation practitioner of the Sichuan guqin tradition. The guqin is a traditional Chinese instrument known for its tranquil but resonant tones, allowing visitors to move through, linger, or listen more closely as sound drifts across the balcony and into the museum below. 14.30 -16.30. Free, just drop-in.

go.glam.ox.ac.uk/xK9W8dXJ4

28/05/2026

A selection of plaited baskets from the collections, showing the versatility of this basketry technique. Learn how to make your own plaited 'elbow' basket on our 2-day workshop with Polly Po***ck. You will learn how to prepare your weaving strips, how to work basic checkweave, then on to making the elbow basket form, how to work a simple border, and finally adding a small hanging handle.

Friday 19 & Saturday 20 June, 10.00-16.30. £160/£128 (includes lunches, refreshments and all materials).

bit.ly/4bRR2QO

27/05/2026

TODAY & TOMORROW Come and make puppets connected to the folktale of the Giant Turnip - a story that shows how working together helps you achieve big things! Then perform your own Giant Turnip puppet show! Wednesday & Thursday, 1-4pm. Free, no booking required.

26/05/2026

Browse 'Palestine: Pieces of Me - Roots of My Homeland', a new collaborative online exhibition which highlights the message of Sumud (steadfastness) through everyday objects, dabke dancing and embroidery.

In the summer of 2023, expert embroiderers from the women’s centre, based in Al Amari Refugee Camp in Ramallah visited Oxford to share the power and beauty of Palestinian cultural heritage and tatreez with local communities. Collaborating with the artists, Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association and Palestinian communities and organisations based in Oxfordshire, the Museum facilitated a series of tatreez museum research sessions, workshops and a pop-up exhibition. The events were a celebration of Palestinian stitching, craft and culture from before the Nakba through to the present day. This exhibition is a legacy created to illustrate Multaka’s longstanding partnerships with both Al Amari Women’s Program Centre and the Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association.

https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/palestine-pieces-of-me

25/05/2026

For this week's half term family activities, come along to hear the folktale of the Giant Turnip, 'as wide as an elephant and as tall as a tree' and perform your own version with puppets and sound effects!

Wednesday 27 & Thursday 28 May, 1-4pm. Free, drop-in activities. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

24/05/2026

Plaited basketry is a centuries old technique, using palm leaves, bamboo & other materials which can easilybe split into ribbon-like strips. Or you can use more contemporary materials such as plastic packing tape, cardboard or paper. In our 2-day workshop with Polly Po***ck, you will learn how to make your own plaited 'elbow' basket - learning how to prepare your weaving strips, how to work basic checkweave, then on to making the elbow basket form, how to work a simple border, and finally adding a small hanging handle.

Friday 19 & Saturday 20 June, 10.00 - 16.30. Tickets: £160/£128 (Includes lunches, refreshments and all materials).

https://bit.ly/4bRR2QO

23/05/2026

If you've been admiring the beautiful textiles in the Oxfordshire Artworks temporary display, 'Living Textiles', facilitated by MultakaOxford, you can now buy unique hand-embroidered pieces from Alsama Studio and Yenof in the museum shop.

Alsama Studio is a grassroots social enterprise located in the Shatila Refugee Camp in Beirut, Lebanon, which ethically creates bespoke, handmade embroidery art. In two years, the Studio has grown from 5 women to 50, with most of the women artisans being the sole bread winners for their extended families. The Studio provides them with the opportunity to support their families with a steady income, allowing them to become financially independent.

Yemen is famous for its traditional embroidery, adorning all types of clothes and accessories worn by men, women and children, and an important reflection of Yemeni culture, society and identity. However, this traditional skill was at risk of dying out. Yemen Noor Foundation for Education and Relief) is an NGO supporting women and families, including running embroidery workshops to preserve this important cultural heritage.

'Living Textiles' ends on Monday 25 May.

22/05/2026

TODAY Tune in to a one-hour live special on the Century of Sounds project on NTS Radio at 12.00 UK time today (Friday 22 May). Co-curated with Cities and Memory, the project is a trip through one hundred years of sounds from all over the world, taken from the Museum sound archives.

In this programme, you'll hear an excerpt from the field recording and then the composition that sound inspired. The final collection presents a new way of listening to these recordings and the stories behind them, and suggests new ways of using sound to help us understand humanity, past and present.

https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/cities-and-memory-a-century-of-sound-22nd-may-2026

The full tracklist is:

1. Afternoon beneath a palm shelter (Central African Republic) - recorded by Louis Sarno, 1986
We sing together - Micca
- 2. Natar (song) on conch and musket (Vanuatu) - recorded by Raymond Ernst Clausen, 1962
Duet for conch shell and synthesiser - Cities and Memory
- 3. "Merer Pake": an nDavu trumpet signal (Vanuatu) - recorded by Raymond Ernst Clausen, 1962
Drawn to the circle - Ana Habesh
- 4. "Sapeh (type of three-stringed boat lute) being played (Malaysia) - recorded by Leslie Bennett, 1960
To the land of the hornbills - Daniel Chudley - Le Corre
- 5. Balonyona playing the geedal (bow harp) (Central African Republic) - recorded by Louis Sarno, 1992
The rainforest - Liboi
- 6. Instrumentals featuring the hyang piri and hojok (South Korea) - Laurence Rowland and Ernest Picken, 1972
How I learnt to live with ghosts - Tim Saul
- 7. Bayaka women singing yeyi (polyphonic song) in the forest (Central African Republic) - recorded by Louis Sarno (1993)
Yeyi by Neil Foster
- 8. Beggars singing for charity (Morocco) - recorded by Audrey Butt, Michael R. Emerson or Ralph Hudson Johnson, 1961
Nothing changes (a begging I will go) by Subphotic
- 9. Women singing (India) - recorded by Nicholas Justin Allen, 1981
Kinnaur calling - Sonic-Soma
- 10. Geedal (bow harp) played in the forest with male voices accompanying (Republic of Congo) - recorded by Louis Sarno, 2002
Talea - Sonic Investigation Unit

Address

South Parks Road
Oxford
OX13PW

Opening Hours

Monday	12pm - 5pm
Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	10am - 5pm

Telephone

+441865613000

Website

http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/

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