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36-606: The Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy is a natural history museum that is part of University College London in London , England. It was established by Robert Edmond Grant in 1828 as a teaching collection of zoological specimens and material for dissection. It is one of the oldest natural history collections in the UK, and is the last remaining university natural history museum in London. Notable specimens and objects held by

72-582: A doubling of the display space, as well as new conservation studios and an education centre. The renovated museum re-opened on 7 November 2009. On 26 November 2011, the Ashmolean opened to the public the new galleries of Ancient Egypt and Nubia . This second phase of major redevelopment now allows the museum to exhibit objects that have been in storage for decades, more than doubling the number of coffins and mummies on display. The project received lead support from Lord Sainsbury's Linbury Trust , along with

108-556: A major redevelopment, and in November 2011, new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were unveiled. In May 2016, the museum also opened redisplayed galleries of 19th-century art. The museum opened on 24 May 1683, with naturalist Robert Plot as the first keeper. The building on Broad Street (later known as the Old Ashmolean ) is sometimes attributed to Sir Christopher Wren or Thomas Wood. Elias Ashmole had acquired

144-499: A mixed bag of state or provincial support as well as university funding, causing differing systems of development and goals. Opportunities for a new public audience coupled with overflowing artifact collections led to a new design for natural history museums. A dual arrangement of museums was pioneered by J. Edward Gray, who worked with the British Museum in the 1860s. This layout separated the science-producing researcher from

180-537: Is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677. It is also the world's second university museum , after the establishment of the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1661 by the University of Basel . The present building was built between 1841 and 1845. The museum reopened in 2009 after

216-661: Is to provide the scientific community with current and historical specimens for their research, which is to improve our understanding of the natural world. Some museums have public exhibits to share the beauty and wonder of the natural world with the public; these are referred to as 'public museums'. Some museums feature non-natural history collections in addition to their primary collections, such as ones related to history, art, and science. Renaissance cabinets of curiosities were private collections that typically included exotic specimens of national history, sometimes faked, along with other types of object. The first natural history museum

252-795: The Egypt Exploration Society 's Oxyrhynchus Papyri held by the museum were allegedly stolen from the collection and sold to the American Museum of the Bible . In 2024, the museum agreed to return a 500-year-old bronze sculpture of the Hindu poet and saint Thirumangai Alvar that it had purchased at an auction at Sotheby's in 1967, after the Indian High Commission in the United Kingdom filed

288-627: The Sackler Library ), incorporating the older library collections of the Ashmolean, opened in 2001 and has allowed an expansion of the book collection, which concentrates on classical civilization, archaeology, and art history. Between 2006 and 2009, the museum was expanded to the designs of architect Rick Mather and the exhibition design company Metaphor , supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund . The $ 98.2 million rebuilding resulted in five floors instead of three, with

324-648: The 17th-century "Tudor House" at Broadway, Worcestershire , in the Cotswolds, in partnership with the Ashmolean Museum. In 2017 the museum became known as the Broadway Museum and Art Gallery. The collection includes paintings and furniture from the founding collections of the Ashmolean Museum, given by Elias Ashmole to the University of Oxford in 1683, and local exhibits expand upon elements of

360-555: The Ashmolean has been extensively modernised in recent years and now includes a restaurant and large gift shop. In 2000, the Chinese Picture Gallery, designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects , opened at the entrance of the Ashmolean and is partly integrated into the structure. It was inserted into a lightwell in the Grade I listed building and was designed to support future construction from its roof. Apart from

396-657: The First World Congress on the Preservation and Conservation of Natural History Collections took place in Madrid, from 10 May 1992 to 15 May 1992. While the museum buildings where collections of artifacts were displayed started to overflow with materials, the prospect of a new building space would take years to build. As wealthy nations began to collect exotic artifacts and organisms from other countries, this problem continued to worsen. Museum funding came from

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432-536: The Selz Foundation, Mr Christian Levett, as well as other trusts, foundations, and individuals. Rick Mather Architects led the redesign and display of the four previous Egypt galleries and the extension to the restored Ruskin Gallery, previously occupied by the museum shop. In May 2016, the museum opened new galleries dedicated to the display of its collection of Victorian art. This development allowed for

468-560: The UCL Medical School library. The Grant Museum contains around 68,000 zoological specimens, many of which are very rare and several of which have been recently rediscovered. The collection contains specimens from a number of former university collections, including specimens from Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London in addition to material from London Zoo and various London hospital comparative anatomy collections. The museum also contains specimens from

504-524: The bequest of Arthur Evans and so has a collection of Greek and Minoan pottery. The department also has an extensive collection of antiquities from Ancient Egypt and the Sudan , and the museum hosts the Griffith Institute for the advancement of Egyptology . Highlights of the Ashmolean's collection include: Recent major bequests and acquisitions include: In 2013 a museum was opened in

540-399: The biological perspective in exhibits to teach the public more about the functional relationships between organisms. This required the expertise of zoologist and botanist. As this kind of work was not typical for educated scientists of the time, the new profession of curator developed. Natural history collections are invaluable repositories of genomic information that can be used to examine

576-616: The collection from the gardeners, travellers, and collectors John Tradescant the Elder and his son, John Tradescant the Younger . It included antique coins, books, engravings, geological specimens, and zoological specimens—one of which was the stuffed body of the last dodo ever seen in Europe; but by 1755 the stuffed dodo was so moth-eaten that it was destroyed, except for its head and one claw. The present building dates from 1841 to 1845. It

612-487: The collections of Thomas Henry Huxley , Karl Pearson , Victor Negus and Doris Mackinnon , and material from the Discovery Expedition and Challenger Expedition . 2018 Paper 1 Social Studies O Level Paper: Pokémon Stop 51°31′26″N 0°08′03″W  /  51.5238°N 0.1343°W  / 51.5238; -0.1343 Natural history museum The primary role of a natural history museum

648-726: The curatorship of the museum was no longer the responsibility of the Chair of Zoology and the museum was under the care of professional curators. The Grant Museum has been in continuous use by students at UCL since 1828, and first opened to the public in 1996. In 2011, the museum moved from its previous location in the Darwin Building on the UCL campus to the Thomas Lewis Room in the Rockefeller Building, formerly

684-545: The histories of biodiversity and environmental change. Collaborations between museums and researchers worldwide are enabling scientists to unravel ecological and evolutionary relationships such as the domestication of the horse , using genetic samples from museum collections. New methods and technologies are being developed to support museomics . Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology ( / æ ʃ ˈ m oʊ l i ən , ˌ æ ʃ m ə ˈ l iː ən / ) on Beaumont Street , Oxford , England,

720-548: The museum include a rare quagga skeleton, thylacine specimens, dodo bones and Blaschka glass models . Robert Edmond Grant was the first Chair of Zoology in England, the founder of the Grant Museum collection and its first curator. He set the precedent that the Chair of Zoology at UCL (then the University of London) was also the curator of the comparative zoology collection. On his death Grant left his own collection to

756-480: The museum, and was briefly succeeded by William Henry Allchin before care of the collection passed to invertebrate zoologist Edwin Ray Lankester in 1875. Lankester was curator until 1891 and added significantly to the museum collection. Later lecturer curators included evolutionary biologist W. F. R. Weldon , Edward Alfred Minchin , embryologist J. P. Hill and palaeontologist D. M. S. Watson . After 1948

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792-526: The natural history museum was a new space for public interaction with the natural world. Museums began to change the way they exhibited their artifacts, hiring various forms of curators, to refine their displays. Additionally, they adopted new approaches to designing exhibits. These new ways of organizing would support learning of the lay audience. Organised by the League of Nations , the first International Museography Congress happened in Madrid in 1934. Again,

828-464: The original Cockerell spaces, this gallery was the only part of the museum retained in the rebuilding. The gallery houses the Ashmolean's own collection and is also used from time to time for the display of loan exhibitions and works by contemporary Chinese artists. It is the only museum gallery in Britain devoted to Chinese paintings. The Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library (formerly

864-448: The painting has been described as an important work illustrating the transition from early to mature Cézanne painting. As the thieves ignored other works in the same room, and the stolen Cézanne has not been offered for sale, it is speculated that this was a case of an artwork stolen to order. The Cézanne has not been recovered and is one of the FBI's Top Ten Art Crimes. In 2010 several of

900-413: The possibility of diverse audiences, instead adopting the view of an expert as the standard. The mid-eighteenth century saw an increased interest in the scientific world by the middle class bourgeoisie who had greater time for leisure activities, physical mobility and educational opportunities than in previous eras. Other forms of science consumption, such as the zoo, had already grown in popularity. Now,

936-464: The return to the Ashmolean of the Great Bookcase , designed by William Burges , and described as "the most important example of Victorian painted furniture ever made." The main museum contains huge collections of archaeological specimens and fine art. It has one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, majolica pottery, and English silver. The archaeology department includes

972-461: The science-consuming public audience. By doing so, museums were able to save space in the exhibit areas and display a smaller, more focused amount of material to the public. This also allowed for greater curation of exhibits that eased the lay viewer's learning and allowed them to develop a more holistic understanding of the natural world. Natural history museums became a story of our world, telling different organisms narratives. Use of dual arrangement

1008-476: The timeline of the village. Upcoming planned exhibitions include: Major exhibitions in recent years include: Beginning in 1973, the position of Keeper was superseded by that of Director: On 31 December 1999, during the fireworks that accompanied the celebration of the millennium , thieves used scaffolding on an adjoining building to climb onto the roof of the museum and stole Cézanne 's landscape painting View of Auvers-sur-Oise . Valued at £3 million,

1044-602: The university in 1921, which was used for the Coin Room at the museum. In 2012, the Ashmolean was awarded a grant of $ 1.1m by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish the University Engagement Programme or UEP. The programme employs three teaching curators and a programme director to develop the use of the museum's collections in the teaching and research of the university. The interior of

1080-645: The various specimens had been moved into new museums, the "Old Ashmolean" building was used as office space for the Oxford English Dictionary . Since 1924, the building has been established as the Museum of the History of Science , with exhibitions including the scientific instruments given to Oxford University by Lewis Evans , amongst them the world's largest collection of astrolabes . Charles Buller Heberden left £1,000 (£56,000 as of 2024) to

1116-582: Was appointed keeper in 1884 and retired in 1908, is largely responsible for the current museum. Evans found that the keeper and the vice-chancellor ( Benjamin Jowett ) had managed to lose half of the Ashmole collection and had converted the original building into the Examination Rooms. Charles Drury Edward Fortnum had offered to donate his personal collection of antiques on condition that the museum

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1152-627: Was designed as the University Galleries by Charles Cockerell in a classical style and stands on Beaumont Street. One wing of the building is occupied by the Taylor Institution , the modern languages faculty of the university, standing on the corner of Beaumont Street and St Giles' Street. This wing of the building was also designed by Charles Cockerell, using the Ionic order of Greek architecture. Sir Arthur Evans , who

1188-643: Was possibly that of Swiss scholar Conrad Gessner , established in Zürich in the mid-16th century. The National Museum of Natural History , established in Paris in 1635, was the first natural history museum to take the form that would be recognized as a natural history museum today. Early natural history museums offered limited accessibility, as they were generally private collections or holdings of scientific societies. The Ashmolean Museum , opened in England in 1683,

1224-496: Was put on a sound footing. A donation of £10,000 from Fortnum (£1.44 million as of 2024) enabled Evans to build an extension to the University Galleries and move the Ashmolean collection there in 1894. In 1908, the Ashmolean and the University Galleries were combined as the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. The museum became a depository for some of the important archaeological finds from Evans' excavations in Crete. After

1260-463: Was quickly adopted and advocated by many across the world. A notable proponent of its use was German zoologist Karl Mobias who divided the natural museum in Hamburg in 1866.   The goal of such museums was not only to display organisms, but detail their interactions in the human world as well as within their unique ecosystems. Naturalists such as American Joseph Leidy pushed for greater emphasis on

1296-727: Was the first natural history museum to grant admission to the general public. The natural history museum did not exist as a typical museum prior to the eighteenth century. Civic and university buildings did exist to house collections used for conducting research, however these served more as storage spaces than museums by today's understanding. All kept artifacts were displayed to the public as catalogs of research findings and served mostly as an archive of scientific knowledge. These spaces housed as many artifacts as fit and offered little description or interpretation for visitors. Kept organisms were typically arranged in their taxonomic systems and displayed with similar organisms. Museums did not think of

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