Monthly Archives: April 2020

The Oxford University Natural History Museum

Posted on by heidi

The Oxford University Natural History Museum

‘On what side – your mother’s or your father’s – are you descended from an ape?’
This scathing put-down from Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, was ably fielded by its target, Thomas Henry Huxley, scientist, and proponent of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
‘I’d rather be descended from an ape,’ he said (allegedly), ‘than from a divine who employs authority to stifle truth.’ Touché!

This (or something along these lines) was the most memorable exchange of the Evolution Debate of 1860. It took place in Oxford in the newly opened Natural History Museum and both sides claimed victory (!). If you visit today, you will see a column commemorating the debate right outside the main entrance and a plaque upstairs.

Both religion and science were peculiarly bound up with the beginnings of the Oxford Natural History Museum. It was the inspiration of the Regius Professor of Medicine, Sir Henry Acland, but largely funded by the sale of Bibles to the Mid-West of America by Oxford University Press.

This is even reflected in the architecture. Either side of the main door stand Adam and Eve. Above them, at the apex, sits an angel, holding a Bible in one hand and a dividing cell in the other. The building was built ‘to the glory of God’ for the study of science and for a few years at least, all the University science departments were here, under one roof.

The entrance arch

Before you even look at the exhibits, you will be struck by the roof. It is made of glass and covers a huge atrium. The atrium is surrounded columns made of stone and iron. All the stones are different (but British), and the iron columns are all surmounted by different leaves. This is Victorian Botanic Gothic at its best. Take a look at the photo on the Museum website https://www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/museums-architecture

The first collections included natural history material from the original Tradescant collection in the Ashmolean Museum. This was supplemented with artefacts from 19th century scientists such as William Buckland. Buckland was a geologist and had a fabulous collection of petrified poo.
Today this is where you come to find the Geology, Mineralogy, Entomology and Zoology collections of Oxford University. And entrance is free!

Of course, the museum is now closed, but since you would only see a few thousand of its 7 million objects if you went along in person, you would do better visiting online in any case.
Our top tips are:
Buckland’s Oxfordshire Dinosaur – the Megalosaurus. See here for a great online exhibit and lots of fascinating explanation. https://www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/megalosaurus-and-oxfordshire-dinosaurs
The Oxford Dodo. Remember the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland? Charles Dodgson (or Dodo Dodgson – it was his own joke (he had a stutter)), better known as Lewis Carroll, brought Alice to visit shortly after the Museum opened. Read all about the Dodo here: https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/the-oxford-dodo
Insects -bees, bugs, butterflies, spiders…. with 5 million specimens in the entomology collection, you could spend the rest of the lockdown looking at them. Go to: https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/insects and notice that you can search the collections if you are interested in a specific insect.
Fossils – view Charles Lyell’s fossils at https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/oum-narrative-84123
First Animals Exhibition – this exhibition is scheduled to run until September 2020 and has gone online. There are films to watch and exhibits which you can virtually examine. It explains how animals adapted from millions of years ago until today. You could spend all day here. There’s even a modern Evolution debate (though they didn’t invite the Bishop of Oxford…). Enjoy! http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/firstanimals/

 © Victoria Bentata 2020 for Walking Tours of Oxford

Oxford’s Libraries – The Bodleian

Posted on by heidi

Oxford’s Libraries – The Bodleian

Home to more than 100 libraries, Oxford is one of the most bookish cities in the world. Each of its 38 colleges has at least one library, some have two or three and Magdalen college has five! Every faculty has a specialised subject library and the mother of them all is the great Bodleian library.

The University’s first library (the Cobham Library) was in an upstairs room of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin and opened in 1320. In the days before damp proofing, keeping books as far as possible from the ground was the only way to save them from mouldering. Still today, a large number of our Oxford libraries are on upper floors.

However, Merton College breaks all records as the oldest ‘continuously functioning’ academic library in the world, dating from 1373. Merton’s books weren’t originally kept on shelves, but in a locked chest and only Masters of Arts could access them. Later, owing to their great value in the pre-printing world, they were chained to the shelves. You can visit the Merton College website for a virtual tour of this stunning library. Merton College . Notice the beautiful ‘waggon’ ceiling and take a look at some of the stained glass.

The Bodleian Library is positively modern by comparison, founded at the beginning of the 17th century. However, it is now one of the most important libraries in the world and in the UK is second only to London’s British Library.

It is named after Sir Thomas Bodley, who studied at Merton and there developed a love for books. He was a lucky man and his first piece of luck was finding a rich widow willing to marry him. Mrs Bodley’s first husband had been a successful pilchard merchant, so some say that the Bodleian was ‘built on fish’.

However, there was nothing fishy about the deal Bodley made with the Stationers Company of London in 1610. Sharing his vision and keen to promote their books, the Company promised him a ‘free and perfect’ copy of every book ever published in this country. The deal they signed is still in force today and UK publishers still have to send their books. So the Library has quite a collection! Around 13 million books at last count. You can see the original agreement here: Click here

The second most important rule in the Bodleian is that nobody is allowed to take out books. You want to read? You sit in the library. This rule applies to royalty too. During the English Civil War, King Charles I was holed up at Christ Church, having lost London to the Parliamentarians. Desperately needing advice, he decided to consult the Seigneur d’Aubigny’s book on military strategy. So he sent a note to the Bodleian asking to borrow it and the librarian …turned him down. The Bodleian still has the note. The King of England had to come sit in the library. (Not that the book helped, obviously – he still lost the war and, ultimately, his head…)

As observed, books and water don’t mix, but books and fire are an equally major disaster. So rule no. 1 is that anyone who wants to become a ‘reader’ in the library has to take an oath. You swear ‘not to bring into the Library or kindle therein any fire or flame’. This may seem a tame method of fire prevention, but the Bodleian has been as lucky as its founder: it has never had a fire.

As for the Bodleian’s collections… this period of lockdown is the perfect time to investigate and admire them at your leisure. The Marks of Genius Exhibition of 2015 was truly extraordinary for both its range and its depth. It contained everything from the Magna Carta to the Audubon Book of American Birds, from The Wind in the Willows and Tolkien’s Hobbit dust jacket, to 15 century maps, Newton’s Principia and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Access it here: http://genius.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/marks-of-genius/ In fact, you’ll get a better view and more information online than had you visited the original exhibition.
If you are interested in Women’s history, try this: Click here for the ‘Women Who Dared’ Exhibition 2016. You can click on each exhibit for more information and for access to a whole world of related exhibits.

The Tower of The Five Orders

In normal times, a tour of the Bodleian Library (https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/plan-your-visit ) is ideal for bookish people who have already enjoyed a Simply Oxford Tour with Walking Tours of Oxford. Simply Oxford Tour informationWalking Tours of Oxford also offer a wide-ranging and thoroughly entertaining Literary Tour of Oxford and specialist tours on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien

©Victoria Bentata 2020 for Walking Tours of Oxford

Ashmolean Museum

Posted on by heidi

Ashmolean Musuem

Had a certain widow not been found tragically (and some thought suspiciously) drowned in her garden pond, then Oxford’s oldest and largest museum might never have come to be.

The unfortunate victim was the former wife of John Tradescant the Younger. Her recently deceased husband had left his collection of ‘rareities’ to his friend Elias Ashmole, who had helped him to catalogue it in 1656. However, Mrs Tradescant was unimpressed and was in the process of contesting the will, when Ashmole moved in next door to her (!) A hop over the fence, a little push… we shall never know, but the consequence was that Ashmole secured the collection and Oxford, England and the World its first public museum.

You can see portraits of the John Tradescants in the Ashmolean Museum today, the Elder framed by vegetables, fruit and flowers and the Younger proudly wielding a spade. Both were royal gardeners to Charles I, a role which (unusually) involved international travel on a grand scale. Their job was to collect plants, but their hobby was collecting anything they found interesting, the aforementioned ‘rareities’ or ‘curiosities’.

Elias Ashmole was a well-connected lawyer, scholar and antiquarian collector. He eventually gave his and the Tradescants’ collection to the University of Oxford in 1677 on the proviso that it be housed it in a building dedicated to the ‘advancement of knowledge’.

The Ashmolean Museum opened in 1683 but it was considerably smaller than today and was located in the building of what is now Oxford’s Museum of the History of Science on Broad Street. The collections were on the top floor, the ground floor was a lecture theatre and in the basement was the University’s first Chemistry and Anatomy Laboratory. It was here that the University’s first Reader in Anatomy dissected the remains of any criminals hanged within 21 miles of Oxford. (You can see the building here with the famous Oxford heads outside – no, nobody is entirely sure whose heads they are – herms, Roman emperors… the original sculptor left no notes!)

Today’s Ashmolean Museum (see photo) is a short walk from the original museum in a classical building built in the 19th century to the designs of Charles Cockerell and is on a much larger scale. The original collections have been added to over the centuries, there was a redevelopment in 2009 and in 2011 its new Nubian and Egyptian galleries opened. The Ashmolean Museum is primarily dedicated to Art and Archaeology. It houses the largest collection of Raphael drawings in the world, it has a stunning Pre-Raphaelite gallery and an extensive collection of everything from casts, ceramics and coins to sculpture and tapestries. It also has important artefacts from Oxford’s history, such as the coins minted here by Charles I during the Civil War.

Whilst the museum is currently closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it is still visitable online. And don’t think it will be a quick visit! – There are 112,500 objects in the online collection, so that’s around 625 objects every day for the next six months!

Top Tip:
Start with the Treasures Click here.
In particular at this difficult time, look for Walter Sickert’s painting ‘Ennui’ – this may chime with your mood – or remind you how well you are doing… Or look at the Messiah violin by Stradivarius ‘Like the Messiah, worth waiting for’ 😊

Once we are up and running again, a perfect day in Oxford features our Simply Oxford Walking Tour at 11.30am which ends around the Broad Street area, perfect timing for lunch and then afternoon at The Ashmolean Museum.

[For more information about the Tradescants, visit The Garden Museum in Lambeth Click here

©Victoria Bentata 2020 for Walking Tours of Oxford