The Montagu Collection, of worldwide coverage and all types of instruments, began to take shape in the early 1960s when what had been a small and very random collection was then rapidly expanded to illustrate lectures and to provide material for research on all aspects of organology. By 1967, when Jeremy Montagu mounted an exhibition in Sheffield and for that reason started his ledger catalogue, the number of instruments had reached about 450.

It has now, thirty years later, reached nearly 2,500. The Collection is always accessible to interested persons.