Abstract Housed at University College London, the Henry James Johnston-Lavis collection of rocks, minerals, photographs, gouaches and engravings is extremely important in that it provides a record of volcanism in southern Italy, especially in the latter part of the 19th century. The collection of the intrepid Dr Johnston-Lavis also contains literature and materials relevant to earlier eruptions of the Italian volcanoes, and sample collections of both rocks and minerals from other world-wide locations of mineralogical and volcanological interest. Although regrettably now much depleted, a substantial part remains, and this continues to be a valuable resource for volcanologists, historical geologists and archaeologists.