Think of the world's great museums...
Most would name the Louvre or perhaps the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. Or
the British Museum or the National Gallery in London. Or the
Smithsonian in Washington and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York.
But what about the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford?
The Ashmolean???
It sounds like something that's either a medical condition of the skin
or a secret men's club at an Ivy League school.
Yet, this fabulous museum in the heart of Oxford is the world's oldest
university museum, founded in 1673 when Elias Ashmole gave the
University his collection of antique coins, books, engravings and
specimens.
The present building dates from 1845 with a major renovation completed
in 2009. The museum contains a rarely contested collection of the
world's greatest ancient archaeological specimens, extensive
collections of Greek and Roman sculpture, and perhaps the world's best
collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.
Most think Oxford is a college town and, indeed, it is. But it is also
home to at least five truly great museums, including the little-known
Asmolean and the even less well known Oxford Museum of Natural
History.
Originally built "to glorify the wonders of the Supreme Being's
natural world," the museum was ironically also where, in 1850, Thomas
Huxley debated Bishop Samuel Wilberforce on the hotly contested new
theory of evolution.
It was Wliberforce who famously concluded his remarks with the classic
question: "Tell me, Sir, is it through your grandfather or your
grandmother that you are descended from the monkeys?"
Today the museum is home to a world-class collection of natural
specimens and other artifacts of science, much of which was discovered
or developed at Oxford.
The University's faculty is responsible for the development of
penicillin, the design of the first wireless telegraphy (the first
demonstration of which took place at the Museum), and the discovery of
Halley's Comet from a homemade observatory on the rooftop of a nearby
college just a short walk from the museum.
Oxford is remarkable for many things, including the presence of
perhaps the world's greatest university. But, less well known are
these five outstanding museums, at least two of which are world class.
These two, plus the other major museums in Oxford (the Pitt Rivers
Museum, the Museum of the History of Science, and the Bate Collection
of Musical Instruments), collectively host more than a million
visitors annually.
That number is puny by Louvre standards. But the lines are much
shorter in Oxford. And the collections are very nearly as impressive.
In fact, to my surprise this week was even more impressive.
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