Ashmolean Museum facts for kids

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Ashmolean Museum

Established	1683; 341 years ago (1683)
Location	Beaumont Street, Oxford, England
Type	University Museum of Art and Archaeology

The Ashmolean Museum (in full the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology) on Beaumont Street, Oxford, is the world's first university museum.

Its first building was built in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677. The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment. In November 2011 new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were also unveiled.

Ashmole's collection was based on the objects he got from the travellers and collectors John Tradescant the elder and his son of the same name. The museum opened on 24 May 1683, with naturalist Robert Plot as the first keeper.

The present building dates from the 1840s, and the original building in Broad Street is now the Oxford Museum of the History of Science. That building is the world's first purpose-built museum.

The interior of the Ashmolean has been extensively modernised in recent years. Between 2006 and 2009, the museum was expanded. The $98.2 million rebuilding resulted in five floors instead of three, with a doubling of the display space. It has new conservation studios and an education centre.

Museum gallery

'The Brighton Pierrots', painted 1915 by Walter Sickert
The Alfred Jewel
'Music' by Edward Burne-Jones
The "Two Dog Palette" from Hierakonpolis
'Restaurant de la Sirène, Asnières', by Vincent van Gogh
The Messiah Stradivarius violin
'Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus', by Edouard Manet
The Narmer Macehead
'The Hunt in the Forest' by Paolo Uccello
Statue of Sobek, the crocodile god, from the pyramid temple of Amenemhat III
'Acme and Septimius', by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton
The 'Apotheosis of Germanicus', a copy after an antique Cameo painted in 1626 by Peter Paul Rubens
The Return of the Dove to the Ark, by Sir John Everett Millais
A Greek tragic mask dating to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD. See Theatre of ancient Greece.
'A lady singing', gouache painting with gold on paper 1740-45, Rajasthan, artist unknown
'Jeanne Holding a Fan', an oil on canvas painting by Camille Pissarro, c.1874
'The Holy Family with St John the Baptist', brush and brown wash on panel by Michelangelo
Tombstone, the doctor Claudius Agathemerus and his wife Myrtale, from Rome, about AD 100
'Studies of the Heads of two Apostles and of their Hands', by Raphael
A death mask of Oliver Cromwell
Portrait of John Ruskin by John Everett Millais
The ceremonial cloak of Chief Powhatan
The Abingdon Sword
'The Annunciation', attributed to Paolo Uccello
The Kish tablet: plaster caste
'Young Englishwoman', a costume study by Hans Holbein the Younger
A self-portrait by Samuel Palmer
Papyrus 115 ( $\mathfrak{P}$ ¹¹⁵): a fragmented manuscript of the New Testament

Images for kids

Wood-engraving of the Ashmolean c. 1845
The museum's renovated central atrium in 2009
Rive des Esclavons, by J. M. W. Turner, c. 1840
Detail from a fragment of wall painting depicting Akhenaten and Nefertiti with their daughters
Taichi Arch on the museum's forecourt, a sculpture by the artist Ju Ming
View of Auvers-sur-Oise by Paul Cézanne
The Brighton Pierrots, 1915, by Walter Sickert
The Alfred Jewel
Music, 1877, by Edward Burne-Jones
The "Two Dog Palette" from Hierakonpolis
The Messiah Stradivarius violin
Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus, by Édouard Manet
The Narmer Macehead
Studies of the Heads of two Apostles and of their Hands, by Raphael
The Hunt in the Forest by Paolo Uccello
Statue of Sobek, the crocodile god, from the pyramid temple of Amenemhat III
Acme and Septimius, c. 1868, by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton
The Sumerian Kings List, dating to approximately 1800 BC
The Apotheosis of Germanicus, a copy after an antique Cameo painted in 1626 by Peter Paul Rubens
A death mask of Oliver Cromwell
The Return of the Dove to the Ark, 1851, by Sir John Everett Millais
A Greek tragic mask dating to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD.
A lady singing, gouache painting with gold on paper 1740–1745, Rajasthan, artist unknown
Jeanne Holding a Fan, an oil on canvas painting by Camille Pissarro, c.1874
The Holy Family with St John the Baptist, brush and brown wash on panel by Michelangelo
Tombstone, the doctor Claudius Agathemerus and his wife Myrtale, from Rome, about AD 100
Portrait of John Ruskin by John Everett Millais
The Mantle of Chief Powhatan, dating to the 17th century
The Abingdon Sword, dating from the late 9th or early 10th century
The Annunciation, attributed to Paolo Uccello
Restaurant de la Sirène, Asnières, by Vincent van Gogh
A Garden in Montmartre by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Young Englishwoman, a costume study by Hans Holbein the Younger
A self-portrait by Samuel Palmer
A coin of Domitianus II
Egyptian Mummy Portrait
The Virgin and Child, by Bernardino Pintoricchio
Maharaja Bakhat Singh of Nagaur. ca. 1735
Early Bronze Age Cycladic art figurine, 2800–2300 BC.
The Kish tablet
Guy Fawkes' Lantern, London, England c. 1605 Iron and horn
So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614
So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614
Man wearing a toga excavated in Rome 1613-1614 and later given the name "Caius Marius"
First century CE togate torso bearing a 17th century CE head dubbed Caius Marius by the Earl of Arundel excavated in 1613-1614 CE
Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE
Closeup of Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE
The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s
The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s View 2
Portrait of a young man with hairstyle, facial features and long neck pointing to portraits made in the early 100s CE
Sphinx commissioned by the Earl of Arundel to partner a Roman Sphinx, 17th century CE
Sphinx, Roman, 50-200 CE.
Fragment of a marble sarcophagus depicting two drunken boys from a Bacchic revel, made in Athens 140-150 CE

Ashmolean Museum facts for kids

Museum gallery

Images for kids

See also