The Wilcox Classical Museum

The Wilcox Museum was dedicated in 1888 as the Classical Museum of the University of Kansas. The Museum’s founder, Professor Alexander Wilcox, taught at KU from 1865-1915. In creating the Classical Museum, Professor Wilcox had the goal in mind of exposing students and Kansans alike to the ancient Greek and Roman arts. The first of its kind in the region, the Museum predated even the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, which was not dedicated until 1933.

Today, the Wilcox Museum is operated by faculty and students from KU’s Department of Classics, and displays plaster casts of famous Greek and Roman sculptures as well as a diverse study collection of objects and artifacts from the ancient Mediterranean region.

The Museum is located in Lippincott Hall 103, in the Mary Amelia Grant Gallery, named after a longtime curator and a benefactor of the collection during the twentieth century. The Department of Classics with curator and director Phil Stinson, Associate Professor of Classics, hope to soon renovate or relocate the Museum with the goal of substantially growing and widening its accessibility and audience. The museum's new website, designed and created by KU students, is part of this project.