The Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum, the oldest public museum in Britain, houses the University of Oxford's unrivalled collection of art and antiquities from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Three centuries and more of unbroken history render the Ashmolean one of the most venerable institutions of its kind in the world. When, in 1683, Elias Ashmole endowed the University of Oxford with the already famous Tradescant collection, many of the exhibits had by that time been on display for fifty years, extending the origins of the collection to the very threshold of the Stuart era. This book traces the eventful history of the Ashmolean and its collections from its origin as cabinet of curiosities, to proto-scientific institution at the turn of the eighteenth century and to stagnation at the opening of the nineteenth; the ensuing century saw the Museum's fortunes rise, fall and rise again to culminate in its refounding as the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology as the result of the tireless energy of Sir Arthur Evans (Keeper 1884-1908) and powerful patrons such as C.D.E. Fortnum. The interplay between the Ashmolean and its sister institutions in Oxford during this period are also examined.