The UNI Museum Collection consists of records documenting the activities, exhibits, and history of the Museum's operations on the Univerity of Northern Iowa campus. The materials date from 1923 to about 2016 and include reports, exhibit files, financial records, audiovisual formats, and much more. Topics and subjects represented in the collection consist of administrative work, exhibit planning, the T. Rex Named Sue exhibit, the Marshall Center School, museum programs, and community engagement. Most of the materials fall within one of eleven categories. Those that do not are listed outside of these categories in the collection finding aid.

Please note that there is overlap in content types and topics across each of the following categories / series. Users may wish to browse or search the entire collection finding aid to see everything held about a topic.

The Exhibit documentation files contain records about exhibits hosted or created by the UNI Museum. The files include exhibit guides, photographs, labels, correspondence, research, and audiovisual materials related to the exhibits and exhibit process.

The Historical Subject files provide an overview of the UNI Museum's operations from about 1964 until the early 1990s, though a small amount of material is from 1923 and the 2000s. It includes materials from Emmett J. Cable's last years as the Museum administrator, as well as files from Pauline Sauer and Ronald Wilson's leadership periods. Also included are files about the Museum Advisory Committee and the Friends of the Museum. Much of the records relate to Museum programming and the use of the Museum by the UNI community, school groups, and the general public. This series originally included personal and professional materials related to faculty members Melvin Franklin Arey, Emmett J. Cable, and Roy Abbott. Those materials were moved to collections for each of those faculty members respectively. These files also included newspaper clippings relating to the local community and campus, which were added to existing files on those matters in University Archives.

The third series Community Relations contains records pertaining to the UNI Museum's community and public relations work. The files were created largely when Kay Thuesen served as the Museum's community relations officer, though there are materials outside of her tenure as well. Types of materials include correspondence, planning documents, event programs, advertising examples, newspaper clippings, grant applications, budgets, and workshop materials. The files' original order has been maintained and they are arranged by event name.

The A T. Rex Named Sue exhibit files consist of records related to the "A T. Rex Named Sue" exhibit hosted by the UNI Museum in Spring 2005. The exhibit's centerpiece, a replica of a Tyrannosaurus rex fossilized skeleton, was provided by the Field Museum in Chicago. The files offer a look at the preparations, marketing, and presention of the exhibit. Included are correspondence, committee files, programs, programming files, contracts, financial information, drawings, marketing / publicity materials, and photographs.

Series 4, Museum Educational programming files were created primarily when Diane Shupbach was the Director of Education for the Museum, with some materials dating from outside this timeframe. Previous SC&UA staff noted those files with "pre-2002" to separate them from more recent files. Types of materials include those collected, developed, and used for specific educational programs. The most extenstive files relate to dinosaurs, American Indians, UNI Museum collections, and Iowa prehistory.

The Financial and Grants records contain a mix of Museum financial information and applications / information for grants pursued by the Museum and its staff.

Series 5, Friends files and Museum ephemera contains materials related to the Friends of the Museum and assorted ephemeral content. The "Friends" files consist of board meeting minutes, special events, financial records, recognitions, membership lists, and more. Other boxes throughout the collection contain additional Friends information. Material is filed first by category, then alphabetically by subject, and finally chronologically. The ephemeral content includes plaques, oversized documents, photographs, and other material.

The Museum Adminstrative files consist of materials concerning different aspects of the running and management of the Museum. The series includes correspondence among Glen Hansen, Jim Bodensteiner, Kent Johnson, and Sue Grosboll concerning building repairs and renovations; accreditation files; annual reports dating from 2003 to 2010; a file of survey material from former UNI Museum director Ronald Wilson's survey of UNI faculty to inform the Museum's five year plan; Friends of the UNI Museum information; and more. Please see the series inventory for a complete list.

The UNI Museum Exhibits dates from c. 1978 to 2014 and includes materials and information related to exhibits created by the UNI Museum. The series contains research sources / notes, exhibit notes, sketches, and information about which Museum objects were used.

The Research Resources and Special Events materials consists solely of items related to the Museum's outreach and events, such as exhibits and public programming from about 1986 to 2014.

The last series, Audio / Moving Image materials contains audiovisual items recorded on a number of different formats. The content relates to the Museum's work. Please also note that other audiovisual materials are included in related series.

Finally, the collection includes annual reports, Museum catalog and accession record information, announcements / releases, brochures, and exhibit posters and pamphlets.