Collections
Astronomy
The University of Montpellier's astronomy collection comprises around 200 objects, 56 of which are classified as Historic Monuments. It is of major heritage interest and illustrates the technical and scientific developments in instruments from the 18th to the 20th century.
The first instruments came from the Royal Society of Sciences and were deposited by the city of Montpellier in 1811. These devices enable students to make observations and carry out experiments during practical work. Held in iconic locations around the city, such as the Babote Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Jardin des Plantes observatory, these classes required the use of quadrants, precision clocks, telescopes, binoculars, and other instruments.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Faculty of Science continued to acquire instruments to meet the modern needs of teaching and research, such as the observation equipment used for artificial comet experiments in the 1960s.
Botany
The Montpellier University Herbarium (MPU) is, in terms of volume and quality of its collections, the second largest herbarium in France after that of the Paris Museum. Both a research tool and a heritage collection, it contains around 3.5 million specimens of vascular plants, algae, mosses, and dried fungi. It also includes more unusual collections (drugs, xylotheque, etc.) as well as documentary collections related to the specimens (handwritten notes by botanists and researchers, scientific iconography such as botanical watercolors by T.F. Node-Véran, classified as Historic Monuments in 2010). The oldest specimens date back to the 16th century, and each year new collections and acquisitions enrich this collection.
In addition to these collections, there are the biological material collections of the Center for Bioarchaeology and Ecology (CBAE) and those of the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences in Montpellier (ISE-M), which manages one of the world's largest collections of pollen slides.
Ethnology
The ethnology collection at the University of Montpellier brings together objects from around the world that bear witness to the diversity and plurality of different cultures, particularly Kanak, Papuan, and Maori.
This heritage collection comprises more than 130 items acquired in the 19th century. It originates from various regions of the world, including Oceania, Asia, South America, and North Africa. It was mainly collected by naval officer Auguste Bérard during three voyages of exploration around the world between 1810 and 1840. The collection includes bone and shell jewelry, wooden sculptures, weapons, musical instruments, and furniture. It was listed as a Historic Monument in 2009.
Another unique feature of this collection is the presence of a collection of fragments of Egyptian mummies, including feet, hands, a few bones, several skulls, and the embalmed body of a child.
Flahaut Photo Library
The "Charles Flahault" photo library contains over 2,000 digitized photographs on glass plates and paper prints from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
This collection was assembled by botanist Charles Flahault (1852–1935), professor at the Faculty of Science and director of the Montpellier Institute of Botany from 1883 to 1927. These photographs were taken during scientific work aimed at studying the evolution of landscapes and vegetation. Many of the photographs are signed by Charles Flahault's colleagues, such as Johannes Lagarde (1866-1934). Family photographs from the Emberger collection, descendants of Charles Flahault, have been added to this collection.
The inventory and digitization of this collection are the result of a partnership between the Montpellier Interuniversity Library (Photography Workshop, Science Library) and the association "Présence de Charles Flahault." The collection is preserved by the Science Library and the Historical Heritage Department of the University of Montpellier.
Mineralogy
When it was founded in 1809, the Faculty of Sciences in Montpellier was the only one, along with the Faculty of Paris, to have a chair in mineralogy. In order to illustrate the first courses, in 1811 the city of Montpellier made a deposit comprising samples of minerals seized during the Revolution. The collections continued to grow throughout the century thanks to donations and purchases by professors, but also through exchanges with various institutions. Students also contributed by collecting samples during practical fieldwork. All these efforts resulted in the creation of a large collection representative of the deposits in the Languedoc-Roussillon region and, more broadly, in France.
Today, the mineralogy collection comprises around 2,500 samples, as well as teaching materials such as wooden mineral models. This collection continues to grow thanks to numerous donations from private individuals.
Furniture and art objects
The University of Montpellier has inherited a rich collection of furniture and art objects that showcase its remarkable historical past.
Paintings and sculptures: nearly 300 paintings and sculptures bear witness to the major events and figures that have marked the history of the university. Among them are more than 260 portraits of professors painted under the protection of Historic Monuments, as well as busts and decorative paintings.
Furniture: the university preserves antique furniture used to display and store the collections. It also owns 19th-century furniture from the former bishopric of Montpellier.
Art objects: the two ceremonial maces of the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Science are among the university's most iconic objects. The one belonging to the Faculty of Medicine, known as the rod of Asclepius, was made by goldsmith Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot in 1804, while the one belonging to the Faculty of Science was made by goldsmith Placide Boué in 1819. Like academic gowns, they are used during official ceremonies.
Paleontology
The origins of the paleontology collection at the University of Montpellier date back to the creation of the Montpellier Faculty of Science in 1809. This discipline, dedicated to the study of extinct life forms and their evolution over geological time, was then attached to the chair of mineralogy and geology.
The first paleontological collections were acquired thanks to a deposit from the city of Montpellier in 1811. They were subsequently enriched by donations, bequests, and purchases. They also include material from excavations carried out in the region since the 19th century, many of which are international references with approximately 10,000 type specimens.
Today, fossil collections include thousands of footprints, vertebrates, invertebrates, charophytes, plants, and pollens.
These collections are constantly updated and managed by the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences in Montpellier (ISE-M). They continue to serve as a resource for teaching and international research.
Contemporary Scientific and Technical Heritage (PATSTEC)
This collection is part of the PATSTEC (PATrimoine Scientifique et TEchnique Contemporain) preservation mission, supported by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Musée des Arts et Métiers/CNAM. It consists of cataloging instruments that bear witness to the technical advances of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The diversity and modernity of the objects that make up this collection give it a remarkable character. Computer equipment, educational charts, microscopes, photomultipliers, etc. are just a few examples of this collection, which grows by 150 items each year.
Donated by laboratories, private companies, and individuals, these instruments are catalogued in order to highlight the areas of research conducted in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. The mission focuses in particular on identifying and preserving equipment related to health, botany, and interdisciplinary fields such as photography, microscopy, and educational materials.
Physics
The physics collection at the University of Montpellier is representative of the history of education, science, and technology in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The instruments in this collection were acquired in part by university professors in the early 19th century for teaching or practical purposes, for demonstrations and scientific research. Another part of this collection comes from revolutionary seizures deposited by the municipality of Montpellier in 1811. According to the archives, physics teaching in Montpellier at that time covered a wide range of subjects, including the movement of the stars, optics, acoustics, electricity, the analysis of matter, and physics applied to the human body.
More than 300 instruments now bear witness to the evolution of teaching and practice over the last few centuries. The great instrument makers are represented by big names such as Pixii, Ducretet, Secrétan, and Beaudouin.
Zoology
The zoology collection at the University of Montpellier consists of more than 40,000 specimens preserved in various ways. In addition to collections of stuffed animals (birds, mammals, fish, reptiles), it also houses numerous specimens that are not mounted on skin, others preserved in fluid (vertebrates and invertebrates), several thousand shelled mollusks, corals, a large collection of mounted skeletons, and entomological specimens.
These collections are the result of donations, exchanges, bequests, or purchases between individuals or institutions such as the National Museum of Natural History, made since the early 19th century. They are used in the teaching of animal biology and comparative anatomy at the Faculty of Science and the School of Pharmacy.
Even today, they remain an excellent teaching tool and constitute remarkable resources for research, particularly in disciplines such as molecular biology and phylogenetics.
1% for the arts
The 1% for Art Program is an original initiative created in 1951 to support contemporary art, raise public awareness of art, and give as many people as possible direct access to contemporary artworks outside of specialized institutions.
This initiative provides for the allocation of 1% of the cost of construction, extension, or renovation work on certain public buildings to the creation of one or more works of art designed for the location in which they are installed.
Most of the works created on the Triolet campus are in the "Op Art" style, also known as optical art. This movement corresponds to an artistic practice, developed in the 1960s, which exploits the fallibility of the eye through optical illusions. Op Art works are generally abstract and give the impression of movement, flashes of light, and vibration. These visual stimuli place the viewer's body in an unstable situation, between pleasure and displeasure, immersed in a sensation of vertigo similar to certain states of mild intoxication.
