Explore the collections at RAMM through a series of online exhibitions.
Some are curated by members of RAMM’s Collections Team, others by volunteers, researchers or community groups. Viewing them on a tablet will give the best user experience.
Featured Stories
History of RAMM
LONG READ: This collections story shares moments from RAMM’s 150+ year history from the moment a museum was first suggested to the present day. Travel along timelines to explore the building, collections and the people who made RAMM what it is today.
New Acquisitions
LONG READ: RAMM continues to add objects and specimens to its permanent collection. Some are historic, documenting the city’s past landscape and people. Others record current biodiversity, new innovation and recent events.
Exeter’s Fine Art: Childhood
QUICK READ: This exhibition is an exploration of images of childhood through history from the 17th to the 20th century.Past Exhibitions at RAMM
A Picture of Health: Exeter’s Medical History
In 2022 RAMM held an temporary exhibition exploring Exeter’s medical past. It was inspired by a collection of recently acquired oil paintings donated by the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. This Collections Story gives you the opportunity to revisit a selection of themes and objects in the show online or browse the content for the first time.
By Royal Appointment: Devon’s lacemakers
LONG READ: By Royal Appointment tells the story of Devon lace through collections at RAMM. Discover the the local people who made lace for the royal family.
Exeter’s Fine Art: Childhood
QUICK READ: This exhibition is an exploration of images of childhood through history from the 17th to the 20th century.
Flower Power: botanical illustrations from India
LONG READ: Based on the ‘Flower Power’ exhibition this collections story features a collection of Indian botanical drawings. It explores why these medicinal plants were drawn, who by and the East India Company’s role in their commission.
In Plain Sight – Transatlantic slavery and Devon
LONG READ: Did you miss this exhibition in 2022? It is recreated online. ‘In Plain Sight – Transatlantic Slavery and Devon’ uses RAMM’s collections and the expertise of many contributors to shed light on local relationships with slavery that are all around us, but for some remain ‘hidden in plain sight’.
Life Through the Lens
QUICK READ: In 2012 Life Through the Lens explored RAMM’s collection of historic glass plate slide photographs. What can historic images tell us about past people and places?More Collections Stories
George Montagu’s Molluscs – a Designated collection
LONG READ: Colonel George Montagu was a British naturalist who established the foundation of modern scientific study. His shell collection at RAMM It is the most intact and taxonomically important collection of British shells of the early 19th century (1800-1816) to be found anywhere in the UK.
History of RAMM
LONG READ: This collections story shares moments from RAMM’s 150+ year history from the moment a museum was first suggested to the present day. Travel along timelines to explore the building, collections and the people who made RAMM what it is today.
Inventors, inventions and great ideas
QUICK READ: From handaxes to spacecraft, explore fascinating inventions and revolutionary ideas through objects in the collections at RAMM.
New Acquisitions
LONG READ: RAMM continues to add objects and specimens to its permanent collection. Some are historic, documenting the city’s past landscape and people. Others record current biodiversity, new innovation and recent events.
Queering the Museum
LONG READ: Out and About: Queering the Museum is an intergenerational project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It aims to empower lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) communities to uncover and create existing and new LGBTQ+ heritage at RAMM.
Seaton Down Hoard
QUICK READ: The Seaton Down Hoard is a coin hoard with 22,888 Roman coins. It is by far the largest coin hoard found in Devon and the third largest ever found in Britain.
Star objects
RAMM cares for wonderful and diverse collections consisting of over one million individual objects and specimens from all over the globe. Star Objects shines a light on some of RAMM’s most iconic and famous objects in the collection. From an extraordinary hoard of Roman coins discovered in East Devon, to our famous Giraffe named Gerald. Delve into Exeter’s astonishing history and discover the remarkable stories that lie behind some of RAMM’s treasured collections.
