Teaching with UR’s Diverse Collections

We offer

  • A collection of artworks, cultural objects, and natural science specimens.
  • Two teaching classrooms (one for the natural sciences collection, one for the art collection) reservable by faculty for courses (or research) staffed by people who can assist in a variety of ways. All course visits involving collection objects are monitored by a staff member, so feel free to ask us to help in other ways.
  • Staff support in researching the collection for faculty who may be interested in teaching with objects but don’t know what we have. Faculty may also browse the collections online.
  • Staff-guided tours, discussion-leading, and short presentations to classes. 


Contacts for the art classroom and art collection

Martha Wright
Assistant Curator for Academic Engagement
mwright3@richmond.edu

David Hershey
Collections Manager and TMS Database Administrator
dhershey@richmond.edu

Contact for natural sciences classroom and collection

(reopening to visitors in fall 2025)

Matthew Houle
Curator of Natural Science Collections
mhoule@richmond.edu 

Contact for ancient coin collection

David Hershey
Collections Manager and TMS Database Administrator
dhershey@richmond.edu

Advanced notice

We prefer to hear from faculty during the semester prior to the requested course session, but we try to support requests at the start of the semester in which the desired course session will take place.