The Kelsey Museum's rich institutional history begins with artifacts acquired by its namesake, Professor of Latin Francis W. Kelsey, between the 1890s and the 1920s. As of 1928 Kelsey's archaeological collections began to be housed in a turreted stone building on the central campus that the University had leased from the Student Christian Association. Not until 1953 did that building become known as the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. As of 2009 our much-expanded collections are both stored and exhibited in the William E. Upjohn Exhibit Wing, a state-of-the art addition to that old stone building.

In the short video below, Kelsey Museum Director Sharon Herbert introduces the Upjohn Wing.

But the Kelsey is of course more than bricks (or stones) and mortar. The people who inhabit the building give it its purpose and its life. Crucial among those people are the talented and dedicated members of the Kelsey staff--from those who design exhibitions, manage the collections, and ensure the viability of the artifacts to those who study our collections or devise ways to engage the public with Mediterranean archaeology to those who keep the administrative office running efficiently.