[2] In addition to displaying its permanent and special exhibitions, the museum sponsors research and fieldwork and conducts educational programs for the public and for schoolchildren.

[5] In 1893, he made his first acquisitions: 108 lamps, vases, and building materials from Alfred Louis Delattre, the Jesuit priest and archaeologist who was conducting an excavation at Carthage in Tunisia, and another 1,096 objects from dealers in Tunis, Rome, Capri, and Sicily.

[5] These artifacts included pottery, terracotta figurines, painted stucco, inscribed tombstones, daily life objects, glass, tombs, and papyri.

[5] In 1924, Kelsey secured funding for excavations at sites around the Mediterranean and began to ship a large number of artifacts back to Ann Arbor.

[5] In 1925, Kelsey commissioned the Italian artist Maria Barosso to paint a set of watercolor replicas of the murals of the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii, which now are housed in a special room in the Upjohn Exhibit Wing.

[5] The building that now houses the museum was originally built for the Students' Christian Association for religious services and other meetings and activities.

"[6][7] The building has a hip roof broken by parapeted cross-gables, with a facade "dominated by a projecting three-story corner turret topped by a conical roof"; "decorative colonettes, arches, and regularly coursed variegated brick bandcourses break the heaviness of the imposing stone structure.

[3] The university leased Newberry Hall in 1921 for classroom space, housed its collection of ancient artifacts there from 1928,[3][7] and finally purchased the building in 1937.

The collection includes ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Coptic, Persian, and Islamic archaeological artifacts.