The museum is caretaker to over 1.2 million objects, some 900 feet (270 m) of documents, 2,000 maps and site plans, and about 500,000 photographs.

[1] The museum is located at Divinity Avenue on the Harvard University campus.

Peabody directed his trustees to organize the construction of "a suitable fireproof museum building, upon land to be given for that purpose, free of cost or rental, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College".

[3] In 1867, the museum opened its first exhibition, which consisted of a small number of prehistoric artifacts from the Merrimack Valley in Harvard University's Boylston Hall.

Peabody Museum is steward to archaeological, ethnographic, osteological, and archival collections from many countries and covering millions of years of human cultural, social, and biological history, with particular focus on the cultures of North and South America and the Pacific Islands, as well as collections from Africa, Europe, and Asia.