Ashmolean Museum

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 millionCarol Vogel (20 June 2013), Director of Ashmolean Museum at Oxford to Step Down New York Times. 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 

 References 

Category:Museums in England
Category:University of Oxford
Category:Art museums in the United Kingdom
Category:Buildings and structures in Oxford