The museum and gallery collections of Oxford University are justly renowned for their richness, diversity, and eccentricity.
This series of guided site visits will introduce students to the remarkable history of Oxford’s collections. We will discover how the ‘cabinet of antique curiosities’ originally bequeathed by Elias Ashmole in the 17th century gave rise to the world’s first public museum, how the rapidly growing collections of the Ashmolean Museum in turn led to the foundation of new museums of science and of anthropology, and how generous donations of paintings and sculpture to the Oxford Colleges resulted in valuable collections of Renaissance paintings and drawings.
We will explore the historic and multifaceted architecture of Christ Church Cathedral - before returning to the Ashmolean Museum to investigate its unique dual role as a museum of art and archaeology.