Duration
1h 45m
Best Time
Any time
Entry
Free - Verified Apr 2026 ✓
Setting
Indoor
About Pitt Rivers Museum
The Pitt Rivers Museum is the University of Oxford's museum of archaeology and world cultures, founded in 1884 when General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers gave his personal collection of 18,000 objects to the university on the condition that they appoint a lecturer in anthropology. The building is a Victorian cast-iron and glass structure attached to the back of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, accessed through the natural history collections. Entry is free. The collection now holds over 500,000 objects from all parts of the world and all periods of human history, displayed in a dense, Victorian-style arrangement of cases packed floor to ceiling: weapons, tools, textiles, musical instruments, ceremonial objects, and human remains. The shrunken heads (tsantsa) from Ecuador and Peru are the most photographed objects and are in a case near the centre of the ground floor. The totem poles in the central court are from the Pacific Northwest. The treatment masks from Papua New Guinea are in cases at the back. The museum deliberately retains the Victorian display method of grouping objects by type rather than by culture, which makes it feel like a cabinet of curiosities at museum scale. Budget 90 minutes to 2 hours.
Insider Tips
Free entry, accessed through the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (also free). Go through the natural history museum first: the dinosaur skeleton and the dodo specimen are worth 20 minutes, then pass through the back to the Pitt Rivers. The shrunken heads are in the central ground-floor cases but look for the smaller and less-noticed cases: the treatment masks from Papua New Guinea, the Northwest Coast Indigenous material, and the historical maps in the upper gallery are all remarkable. The upper gallery is often empty and has the best overview of the entire collection.
Practical Details
Getting There
Skip the queue: Book tickets online to avoid the ticket line.
Frequently Asked Questions
Plan for about 1h 45m.
Pitt Rivers Museum is in the Central University & Bodleian neighborhood of Oxford. The address is S Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3PP, UK. The area is well-served by metro.
Yes, entry is free. There may be optional paid exhibits or activities, but the main experience costs nothing.
This works well at any time of day, though mornings tend to be quieter. Weekdays are less crowded than weekends.
