Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Part of the University of Cambridge, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology manages to feel both like a sprawling global treasury and an intimate local archive. The space is remarkably dense, packing three floors with everything from massive Pacific totem poles and Captain Cook’s Gweagal spears to delicate Anglo-Saxon jewelry found in nearby Trumpington. While the ground floor focuses on the deep history of Cambridgeshire, the upper galleries lean into social anthropology, displaying a world-class collection of ethnographic objects that range from everyday teapots to sacred ceremonial masks. The museum is notable for its progressive curation; rather than keeping the past in a vacuum, it frequently collaborates with Indigenous communities to recontextualize colonial-era acquisitions. Look up as you move through the galleries to spot the Grade II listed architecture, which even incorporates a 17th-century choir screen from Winchester Cathedral.