The size and age of the museum's collections made moving them from Lincoln Hall to the new Spurlock building a formidable task.

[1] The Spurlock Museum's artifact collection contains approximately 51,000 objects, covering six continents and one million years of human cultural history.

A few of the significant collections include Parthenon frieze casts, Merovingian bronzes, Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets, and Amazonian bark cloth.

Preservation is achieved by keeping the majority of artifacts in storage; following professional standards, the museum only displays four to five percent of its holdings at any one time.

The photographs highlight the Inuit, landscapes, and wildlife while the ethnographic or cultural artifacts include hunting and whaling tools, clothing and sled equipment.

[3] This collection of approximately 1750 inscribed tablets from ancient sites of Umman and Drehem in Mesopotamia dates from the Third Dynasty of Ur in the 21st and 20th centuries BCE to the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian periods (ca.

The galleries feature exhibits on the ancient Mediterranean, Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the indigenous cultures of the Americas.