Ancient Beadwork
Bead and Beadwork Research
This website aims to promote beadwork analysis in archaeology and hopes to inform both specialists and people otherwise interested in the subject.

​TheBeadSite.com
Created by the late Peter Francis, Jr., as the outreach arm of his Center for Bead Research, supporters rebuilt this website which is now an archived source. The publications of the center are available for viewing here.

​Beadwork
Beading Magazine

The British Museum - Collection
The British Museum in London, England, houses a large collection of beads and beadwork from around the world, prehistoric to modern.

The British Museum - Research
The British Museum's research provides new information and perspectives on the objects in the collection and the people who made, used or collected them.

Canes for Millefiori Work
Published  by Jamey D. Allen

David Ebbinghouse
Researcher, traveler, jeweler and artist,Ebbinghouse seeks to create an art that transcends the boundaries of how we normally think about art.

J.F. Sick and Co. trade bead sample card collection
This collection was the subject of Richard van Alphen’s 2006 book, The Bead Goes On: The Sample Card Collection with Trade Beads from the Company J.F. Sick & Co. in the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam. KIT, Amsterdam.

The Margaretologist
The Margaretologist was the newsletter of the Center for Bead Research headed by Peter Francis, Jr. It contains a wealth of articles on a variety of bead-related topics. Well worth investigating.

Mingei International Museum
The Wonderful World of Beads
Learn about the over 11,000 beads and bead objects in Mingei's permanent collection donated by The Bead Museum in Glendale, Arizona.

​Munsell Bead Color Book
With over 170 of the colors most common in beads found in archaeological sites and used on ethnological specimens of beadwork, this portable guide will help in the writing of reports on beads and beadwork.

Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou
The collections of the Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic, contain thousands of ornaments including beads, pendants, sample cards, and various categories of jewelry. Unfortunately, only a few of the items are shown on the website. 

Ornament
Always worth a look is Ornament magazine, which frequently includes high-quality articles on beads and beadwork, both modern and from antiquity.

Picard Trade Bead Museum
Online exhibitions illustrating beads from various countries and commercial bead cards. Very informative.

Pitt Rivers Museum Databases
The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England, holds a sizable collection of beads and beadwork from various cultures, as well as bead sample cards.

Prescott Bead museum
Your online source for ancient, antique, and modern collectible beads.

PYU Pictorial & Essay for BeadCollector.net
Published December 17, 2005
by Jamey D. Allen

The Society of Bead Researchers
A non-profit scientific-educational organization founded in 1981 to foster serious research on beads and beadwork of all materials, regions, and periods, and to facilitate the dissemination of the resultant knowledge.

The Society of Bead Researchers - Bibliographies
Bibliographies of the Center for Bead Research

The Society of Bead Researchers - Publications
Publications of the Center for Bead Research

Stephen A. Frost Trade Bead Collection, Illinois State Museum
A collection of 71 sample cards used by the firm of Stephen A. Frost & Son ca. 1848-1937, which depict a wide variety of Venetian and Bohemian glass beads including numerous fancy lamp-wound beads.

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
The museum’s collections contain thousands of beads, as well as beadwork and items adorned with beads.

World on a String Project 
An amazing 5 DVD series all about beads​

​​Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
The Bead Timeline created by the Bead Society of Greater Washington was donated to the Peabody in 2008 and is currently being integrated into the museum’s Division of Anthropology and cataloged in the Peabody Museum’s data base. In the future they hope to exhibit the Timeline or portions of it. In the interim, images of portions of the collection are posted in this gallery.