For museums named "university museum" see, University Museum

University Museum

University Museum is a historic building that houses several museums on the campus of Harvard University on 11-25 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The building houses both the Harvard Museum of Natural History and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.The structure was built...

A university museum is a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 or collection

Collection (museum)

A museum is distinguished by a collection of often unique objects that forms the core of its activities for exhibitions, education, research, etc. This differentiates it from an archive or library, where the contents may be more paper-based, replaceable and less exhibition oriented...

 run by a university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

, typically founded to aid teaching and research within the university. The Ashmolean Museum

Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...

 at the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 is an early example, originally housed in the building that is now the Museum of the History of Science. A more recent example is the Holburne Museum of Art

Holburne Museum of Art

The Holburne Museum of Art is in Sydney Pleasure Gardens, Sydney Place, in the Bathwick area of Bath, Somerset, England.-History:...

 in Bath, originally constructed as a hotel in 1796 it is now the official museum of the University of Bath

University of Bath

The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....

. The focus of university museums includes research into, as well as the display of, collections.