Civic Collections

Glasgow has the largest and finest civic collection in the UK and one of the greatest civic collections in Europe. It is managed on behalf of the city by Glasgow Life. 

At over one million objects, valued at more than £1.4 billion, the museums collection is the city's biggest single asset, covering an extraordinary range of areas across art, technology, history and natural history. It is displayed and stored in ten venues across the city that attract over three million visits per year. 

The Mitchell Library, in addition to its City Archives (estimated at 2.3 million assets), has an estimated 2.2 million lending and non-lending assets including: the Glasgow History collections, other special collections, rare books and manuscripts, maps, photographs, music, early newspapers, periodicals and journals, artworks and ephemera. 

Much of the collection is now available to see online through the Glasgow Life collections navigator which can be accessed here.

The Civic Collections asset class has been linked to the vibrancy theme in the Council Plan.