The museum is home to an invaluable record of Earth's environments and cultures. As the state's official repository for Oregon cultural and paleontological materials, our vaults house hundreds of thousands of objects ranging from archaeological and ethnographic items to fossils and geological specimens.

The museum also curates extensive zoological and zooarchaeological collections used for comparison and identification of specimens from paleontological and cultural sites. Together, the collections inspire wonder, stewardship, and scholarship in Oregon and beyond.