Ashmolean Museum. The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum.
Its first building was erected in 1678-83 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677. The present building was erected 1841-45.
The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment. In November 2011, new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were unveiled.
In May 2016, the museum opened new galleries of 19th-century art. The museum opened on 24 May 1683, with naturalist Robert Plot as the first keeper.
The building on Broad Street, which became known as the Old Ashmolean, is sometimes attributed to Sir Christopher Wren or Thomas Wood. Elias Ashmole had acquired the collection from the gardeners, travellers, and collectors John Tradescant the Elder and his son, John Tradescant the Younger. It included antique coins, books, engravings, geological specimens, and zoological specimens, one of which was the stuffed body of the last dodo ever seen in Europe; but by 1755 the stuffed dodo was so moth-eaten that it was destroyed, except for its head and one claw. The present building dates from 1841 to 1845. It was designed as the University Galleries by Charles Cockerell in a classical style and stands on Beaumont Street. One wing of the building is occupied by the Taylor Institution, the modern languages faculty
Its first building was erected in 1678-83 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677. The present building was erected 1841-45.
The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment. In November 2011, new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were unveiled.
In May 2016, the museum opened new galleries of 19th-century art. The museum opened on 24 May 1683, with naturalist Robert Plot as the first keeper.
The building on Broad Street, which became known as the Old Ashmolean, is sometimes attributed to Sir Christopher Wren or Thomas Wood. Elias Ashmole had acquired the collection from the gardeners, travellers, and collectors John Tradescant the Elder and his son, John Tradescant the Younger. It included antique coins, books, engravings, geological specimens, and zoological specimens, one of which was the stuffed body of the last dodo ever seen in Europe; but by 1755 the stuffed dodo was so moth-eaten that it was destroyed, except for its head and one claw. The present building dates from 1841 to 1845. It was designed as the University Galleries by Charles Cockerell in a classical style and stands on Beaumont Street. One wing of the building is occupied by the Taylor Institution, the modern languages faculty
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