Manuscript Catalogues of the Early Museum Collections 1683-1886

For more than three centuries the collections of the Ashmolean Museum have occupied a position of primary importance in the history of collecting. The manuscript inventories of successive curators, many previously unpublished, represent a fundamental resource for scholars, providing a record of both the fluctuating content of the museum and of the changing preoccupations of collectors and donors.
 
For more than three centuries the collections of the Ashmolean Museum have occupied a position of primary importance in the history of collecting. The manuscript inventories of successive curators, many previously unpublished, represent a fundamental resource for scholars, providing a record of both the fluctuating content of the museum and of the changing preoccupations of collectors and donors.