Museum of the History of Science
unknown (British)
Download1A2-E-O-MHS-A2_cp.jpg (405.6Kb)
Alternative Title
Old Ashmolean Building
Date
1683Description
Side view of the east elevation looking northwest; The Museum of the History of Science, located in Broad Street, Oxford, is home to an unrivalled collection of scientific instruments from medieval times to the 17th century. Its collection of 18th and 19th-century instruments is also substantial. Built in 1683 to house Elias Ashmole's collection, the museum building became known as the Old Ashmolean Building (to distinguish it from the newer Ashmolean Museum building where the Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology moved in 1894) and was the world's first purpose-built museum building; it was also open to the public. The original concept of the museum was to institutionalize the new learning about nature that appeared in the 17th century and experiments concerning philosophy were undertaken in a chemical laboratory in the basement, while lectures and demonstration took place in the School of Natural History, on the middle floor. Ashmole's collection was expanded to include a broad range of activities associated with the history of natural knowledge and in 1924 the gift of Lewis Evans' collection allowed the museum further improvement, becoming the Museum of the History of Science and appointing Robert Gunther as its first curator. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 6/18/2008)
Type of Work
museumSubject
architectural exteriors, scientific or medical, Education, educational, Seventeenth century
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only