Oxford University Museum of Natural History

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Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Interior of the building

The Oxford University Museum of Natural History , sometimes simply Oxford University Museum , is a museum that displays many of the University of Oxford's collections of natural history species . It also has a lecture hall that is used by the chemistry , mathematics and zoology departments. The Pitt Rivers Museum is attached to the museum .

history

The history of the University's Honor School of Natural Science began in 1850 with facilities in several colleges all over Oxford ; likewise the collections of the university on anatomical and natural history species.

Sir Henry Acland (1815–1900), Regius Professor of Medicine , suggested the establishment of the museum, which was then completed between 1855 and 1860. Several departments moved into the new building, including astronomy , geometry , experimental physics , mineralogy , chemistry , geology , zoology , anatomy , physiology and, last but not least, Acland's medicine. With increasing size, some of the departments had to leave the building for other locations.

In 1884 another part of the building was added on the east side, which houses the ethnological collection of General Pitt Rivers .

As the last department, the Entomology ( Hope Department of Entomology , founded by Frederick William Hope ) left the building in 1978 and moved to the zoologists. Nevertheless, there is still a functioning entomological laboratory on the first floor today.

Most of the museum's collection consists of the Ashmolean Museum's natural history exhibits , drawn from the Musaeum Tradescantianum collections of John Tradescant ( father and son ), William Burchell, and geologist William Buckland . The Christ Church Museum also donated its osteological and physiological exhibits, most of which were collected by Acland.

The building

The neo-Gothic building was conceived by the architect Benjamin Woodward (1816–1861). It consists of a rectangular base over which a glass roof supported by cast iron columns spans, dividing the area into three parts. Separate arcades run around the ground floor and the first floor. They are formed by pillars, each made from a different type of stone from the kingdom . The stones were selected by geologist John Phillips . The decorations on the stone and iron columns show forms of nature such as branches and leaves, whereby the Pre-Raphaelite style was combined with a scientific one.

On the ground floor there are also statues of important scientists such as Aristotle , Euclid , Roger Bacon , Charles Darwin and Carl von Linné .

literature

  • A. Vernon Harcourt : The Oxford Museum and its Founders . In: The Cornhill Magazine . Volume 28, 1910, pp. 350-363 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Oxford University Museum of Natural History  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 33 "  N , 1 ° 15 ′ 23"  W.