University educational collections need to be integrated to ensure their long-term survival. Often reduced to their heritage value, we must preserve their educational role by opening up to new audiences to include training and debate on current issues. This text is both a historical study and a review of experience, presenting the case of Sorbonne University’s zoology collection. The aim is to show how the study of objects, archives and spaces sheds light on the processes of transmission, transformation and reconfiguration of the university heritage. The analysis will be punctuated by three photographs of the collection taken at different times in its existence. This contribution seeks to serve as a useful testimony for others engaged in similar processes.
