Step into our online exhibition to discover fascinating stories, obscure history, and unique insights as told by our collections. Our first exhibition: Henry VIII: Defender of the Faith? will examine the private life and public persona of King Henry VIII; his personal and political motivations for obtaining the title of ‘defender’; and how these same motivations saw him shift from ‘defender’ to ‘adversary’, to become England’s most notorious King.  

We hope you enjoy your visit!

If you would like to keep up to date with our programme of events, activities, and future exhibition, please sign up to our mailing list here. You can also sign up to receive SALON, our fortnightly newsletter sharing news from the heritage sector here. If you would like to explore our collections further, take a look at our new Collections Online.  

The Society of Antiquaries is an educational charity that works to explore and conserve our human past. From our London base in Burlington House, we promote research and dissemination via an exciting series of public lectures, tours, events, and exhibitions; we welcome students and researchers to our world-renowned library of over 130,000 books and manuscripts; and invite visitors to discover the c. 40,000 unique objects, paintings, prints and drawings that sit within our museum collections. At Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire, featured in the publicly nominated ‘A History of England in 100 places’ (2018), visitors can step inside William Morris’s rural idyll to view the house and collections of the leading Arts and Crafts figure, and can take in the beautiful surroundings that inspired much of his work.