Museum of the History of Science
From 1683 to 1889 this building was the original Ashmolean Museum
This “Old Ashmolean” is a Grade I listed building (List Entry No. 1369352, and for screen wall and piers 1299669). It was built in Headington stone by the University in 1679–83, and patched with Clipsham stone in 1960. It was probably designed by the Oxford master-mason Thomas Wood, and was opened in 1683 by James, Duke of York (later James II) whose cipher and crown can be seen on the north front. It cost the then massive sum of £4,500.
Its original purpose in 1683 was to house the collection of rarities and curiosities that had been inherited from John Tradescant the Younger by Elias Ashmole (1617–92), and was hence known as the Musaeum Ashmoleanum. It was the first museum in the world to open its doors to the public. The first curator was Robert Plot (1640–96) was appointed its first curator, and in February 1683 he wrote to a friend, “Fryday next I goe for London to fetch down Mr Ashmole’s Collections towards furnishing this House, when I guess I shall spend about a month in Catalogueing and boxing them up.”
In addition to being a museum, the Old Ashmolean housed the School of Natural History on the middle floor and the first chemical laboratory in England in the basement, and Plot was appointed the University of Oxford's first professor of chemistry at the same time as he became the Museum's curator.
Later the basement was also used for practical anatomy, and on 10 April 1762 Parson Woodforde wrote: “Went under the Musaeum to see a Woman that is to be dissected for which I paid 0. 0. 6.”
The above engraving shows some of the exhibits in the Museum in the mid-1840s. In the next decades its collections were moved to new museums built in Oxford as follows:
- From 1846 some of the museum’s objects of antiquity and works of art were transferred to the new University Galleries in Beaumont Street
- From 1860 the natural history items transferred to the University Museum
- From 1887 the ethnographical specimens moved to the Pitt Rivers Museum
- 1889: the remaining artefacts including the Arundel Marbles and the Alfred Jewel were moved to the new Ashmolean Museum that had just been erected behind the University Galleries in Beaumont Street.
Jackson's Oxford Journal on 12 February 1887 explained that on the opening of the new Ashmolean Museum, the old Ashmolean Museum in Broad Street was “enabled to become a scientific collection with a specific character, instead of a mere gathering of relics and rarities”. Kelly’s Directory for 1891 describes it thus:
The Ashmolean Museum, westward of the theatre, was built in 1679–83 from plans by Mr Thomas Wood, architect, to contain the collection of curiosities made by John Tradescant, a Dutchman, and gardener to Charles I, which his son, the younger Tradescant, bequeathed to Elias Ashmole, who in turn, in 1679, offered it to the university: the collection, including many additions made by Ashmole, is rich in manuscripts connected with heraldry and genealogy, now placed in the Bodleian Library, and the geological collection is said to be one of the best in the kingdom: but many alterations have been made in the Museum, owing to the removal of the natural history specimens to the New Museum; the basement is now the receptacle of a part of the Arundel and other inscribed marbles; the middle room contains various Anglo-Saxon and Mediaeval antiquities, and amongst the former is the celebrated Alfred jewel; there are also ethnological collections made by Captains Cook and Beechey: the upper room, which had long been used for examinations, has quite recently been re-appropriated to the use of the museum, which is open daily from 2 till 4;
Arthur John Evans M.A., keeper.
On 28 May 1892 it was reported in Jackson's Oxford Journal that the University of Oxford had been bound by the Fortnum Bequest of 1888 “to provide a sum not exceeding 11,000l. for the erection of a new Ashmolean Museum on ground adjoining the University Galleries”, and “to provide a sum not exceeding 4000l. for the fitting up and furnishing of the Museum”. The Ashmolean Museum opened behind the University Galleries in 1899, and this building in Broad Street then became known as the “Old Ashmolean Building”, and was used as university offices.
In 1924 the Old Ashmolean began to assume the role of a museum again, when its upper floor was assigned to the Lewis Evans collection of scientific instruments which had just been presented to the university. In 1935 the building was established by statute as the Museum for the History of Science.
A public consultation on the proposed refurbishment of this museum will be held at Blackwell Hall in the Weston Library from 8 to 21 July 2024, with members of the project team available at the times shown:
| Occupants of the Museum of the History
of Science listed in directories |
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To 1895 |
Ashmolean Museum |
1904–1926 |
Old Ashmolean Building Ground Floor: Oxford English Dictionary First Floor: Oxford University Appointments Committee and |
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1926–1935 |
Old Ashmolean Building Middle Floor; |
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1936–1939 |
1936–1939 Middle Floor; |
1941–present |
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