Museums

Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Oxford University Museum started life in 1855 when Oxford was beginning to teach experimental science. Recognising the need for specialised teaching facilities the Museum together with the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory was built. The aim of the museum was to provide an all embracing teaching facility about the history of life on earth. The project was strongly supported by many leading figures including John Ruskin.

In the centre of the main hall of the museum are the Oxford dinosaurs. These fossil skeletons were found in the Jurassic rocks of the Oxford area as the city began to expand in the 19th century. The focal point is the skeleton of an iguanodon.

As well as the dinosaurs one of the most famous attractions of the museum is the painting of a Dodo by John Savery. The bird in question was brought to England in 1638 and formed part of the Tradescant later Ashmolean collection. This painting was the inspiration behind Lewis Carroll's famous character in Alice in Wonderland.

The upper galleries are home to a fine collection of insects, butterflies and birds where there are also great views across the main hall.

The museum is located on Parks Road off Broad Street in central Oxford it is open between 10am and 5pm 7 days a week with free admission. 

For information on opening times and details of the latest events visit the website at;

www.oum.ox.ac.uk/ or telephone 01865 272950

The Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum is regarded as the oldest museum in the UK. Established in 1683 it houses the University's vast array of Arts & Antiques which have been collected over the past 400 years. The name "Ashmolean" was used after extensions were built in 1899 to house the antique collections of the scholar Elias Ashmole. These have subsequently been transferred to purpose built premises on Broad Street at the Museum of The History of Science.  

The museum collections go back prior to Ashmole's day and extend to Lambeth in London. There a pub called the Ark was where the early 17th century naturalist and royal gardener John Tradescant displayed his collection of artefacts which he had collected travelling to Europe. Following his death in 1683 Tradescant's son John combined the collection with his own items he had collected from Virginia.

In the meantime Ashmole had befriended the Tradescant's and convinced them he would be a suitable curator after their passing. The young Tradescant left a contradictory Will bequeathing the collection to Oxford and Cambridge. His widow and Ashmole successfully challenged this decision and won. The collection was passed to Oxford in return for an honorary degree.

Items from the original "Ark" can still be seen in the museum in the special Tradescant room on the 1st floor. It is an eccentric and eclectic collection of objects including Guy Fawkes' lantern, Oliver Cromwell's death mask and a piece of stake at which Bishop Latimer was burned. It also includes a rhinoceros horn cup from China, Henry VIII's stirrups and hawking gear and Powhattan's Mantle. Powhattan was the king of Virginia and as most children will know - father of Pocahontas.

Since moving to Beaumont Street the Ashmolean Museum has developed into one of the world's greatest museums with one of the finest collections of archaeological and historical antiques on display.

For information on opening times and details of the latest events visit the website at;

www.ashmolean.org/ or telephone 01865 278000

Pitt Rivers Museum of Ethnology

The Pitt Rivers Museum now re-opened after a 10 month refurbishment program. The £1.5 million redevelopment allows visitors to appreciate afresh the significance of this extraordinary collection. In addition there are eight new case displays focusing on art and decorative techniques, including three new cases on Australian Aboriginal art.

Constructed in 1884 to house the collection of Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers built up during his service in faraway places with the Grenadier Guards. The museum has grown from 20,000 items to well over 500,000 items of which approximately 400,000 are on permanent display and which are predominantly donations from scholars and missionaries.

The order in which the collection appears is unconventional as opposed to the items being displayed chronologically; the items are shown according to how they were used traditionally. For example model Chinese junks are displayed next African dugout canoes highlighting the similarities that exist between the different cultures.

For information on opening times and details of the latest events visit the website at;

www.prm.ox.ac.uk/ or telephone 01865 270927

The Oxford Museum

The Museum of Oxford is situated in St Aldates and displays an easy to digest history of the city's development. Display's highlight the city's history from prehistoric times to the industrial age with exhibits ranging from reconstructions of Roman kilns to the legend of St Frideswide. It also covers the origins of the University to the development of car production at Cowley.

The reconstruction of several Oxford houses are something to behold, contrasting the working class district of Jericho with the stylish drawing rooms of North Oxford's villas decorated in the latest William Morris textiles and the 1930's living room in the newly built Morris Motors suburb of Cowley.

Other highlights include the Keble College Barge an example of one of the ornate floating boathouses of the late 19th century from which spectators would watch races on the river. The most macabre exhibit is the skeleton of Giles Covington who was an Oxford Freeman convicted of murder and executed in 1791.

For information on opening times and details of the latest events visit the website at;

www.museumofoxford.org.uk or telephone 01865 252761

Museum of the History of Science

The Museum of The History of Science on Broad Street houses a comprehensive collection of early instruments. For non-scientists the museum may appear a little daunting with cases filled with complex astrolabes, quadrants and armillary spheres but don't be put off as there is lots to see and enjoy.

A collection of early photographs dating back to the 1840's is displayed on the ground floor including one of John Ruskin's views of Venice which was used by the artist for his work on Renaissance architecture, The Stones of Venice.

In the basement in what was once a former Chemistry Laboratory is a carefully preserved blackboard displaying Einstein's neatly chalked theorems, a fitting memento of his first lecture at Oxford given on the 16th May 1931 on the Theory of Relativity.

An array of gruesome early medical and dental instruments, radios, gramophones and phonographs are on display together with the war time work of Oxford scientists racing against time to prepare large scale production of penicillin.    

For information on opening times and details of the latest events visit the website at;

www.mhs.ox.ac.uk or telephone 01865 277280