Heritage And Collections

Over the centuries Eton College has acquired a considerable heritage of fine buildings. Their preservation is regarded as fundamental for the enrichment of the education that we provide. For the same reason we conserve and augment our collections of books and works of art, using them for teaching purposes, making them available as a valuable resource to external scholars and, increasingly, mounting exhibitions which are open to the public.

Access to our collections

College library - one of the most important rare book collections in the country – is available to outside scholars; the library holds regular exhibitions of its material, organises specialist guided tours and runs a Book Collectors' Club.

The Myers Collection of Egyptian antiquities is one of the world's finest private collections of Egyptian Art. Part of the Collection has now been lent until 2025 to the University of Birmingham and to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, for exhibition, teaching and cataloguing, as well as digitisation with a view to providing internet access. In 2014, the Collection at Eton will move into its new home, The Jafar Gallery (currently under construction on the Bekynton Field site).

Our Natural History Museum has delivered tailored outreach activities for about twenty local schools, both primary and secondary.  In addition, it runs family learning events with the Clewer Cluster of schools in Windsor and is an outreach partner with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Royal Holloway University of London and Chelsea Physic Garden.  It has also provided access to students from the Universities of Kingston and London (Institute of Education) studying Museums and Galleries for their masters degrees. It is an accredited learning destination for Slough Children's University.

Maintaining our heritage

We are responsible for the upkeep of 78 Listed Buildings including our Chapel. We share in the Patronage of 16 parish churches and have chancel repair responsibilities for 10.The historic part of the school is shown to over 20,000 visitors a year. The Museum of Eton Life (a registered museum) is open to the public.