Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Oxford University
Museum of Natural History

Front view of Oxford University Museum
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Established	1850
Location	Parks Road,Oxford,England
Coordinates	51.7586°N 1.2557°W/51.7586; -1.2557
Type	University museumofnatural history
Collections	Natural history
Collection size	approx. 7 million objects
Visitors	792,282 (2019)
Founder	SirHenry Acland
Director	Paul Smith
Architect	Thomas Newenham Deane,Benjamin Woodward
Website	oumnh.ox.ac.uk

TheOxford University Museum of Natural History(OUMNH) is amuseumdisplaying many of theUniversity of Oxford'snatural historyspecimens, located onParks RoadinOxford,England.It also contains alecturetheatre which is used by the university'schemistry,zoologyandmathematicsdepartments. The museum provides the only public access into the adjoiningPitt Rivers Museum.

History

TheDinosaurGallery of the museum before renovation in 2023–24

The university's Honour School of Natural Science started in 1850, but the facilities for teaching were scattered around the city ofOxfordin the variouscolleges.The university's collection ofanatomicalandnatural historyspecimens were similarly spread around the city. Regius Professor ofMedicine,SirHenry Acland,initiated the construction of the museum between 1855 and 1860, to bring together all the aspects ofsciencearound a central display area. In 1858, Acland gave a lecture on the museum, setting forth the reason for the building's construction. He viewed that the university had been one-sided in the forms of study it offered—chieflytheology,philosophy,theclassicsandhistory—and that the opportunity should be offered to learn of the natural world and obtain the "knowledge of the great material design of which the Supreme Master-Worker has made us a constituent part".This idea, of Nature as the Second Book of God, was common in the 19th century.

The largest portion of the museum's collections consist of the natural history specimens from theAshmolean Museum,including the specimens collected byJohn Tradescant the elderandhis son of the same name,William Burchelland geologistWilliam Buckland.The Christ Church Museum donated itsosteologicalandphysiologicalspecimens, many of which were collected byAcland.The construction of the building was accomplished through money earned from the sale ofBibles.Several departments moved within the building—astronomy,geometry,experimental physics,mineralogy,chemistry,geology,zoology,anatomy,physiologyandmedicine.As the departments grew in size over the years, they moved to new locations along South Parks Road, which remains the home of the university'sScience Area.

The last department to leave the building was theentomologydepartment, which moved into thezoologybuilding in 1978. However, there is still a working entomology laboratory on the first floor of the museum building. Between 1885 and 1886 a new building to the east of the museum was constructed to house theethnologicalcollections of GeneralAugustus Pitt Rivers—thePitt Rivers Museum.In 19th-century thinking, it was very important to separate objects made by the hand of God (natural history) from objects made by the hand of man (anthropology).

The museum is being renovated and the layout being changed between 2023 and 2024.

The building

The interior from the gallery level.

James O'Shea at work on carvings of animals and plants.

Roof and dinosaur exhibition hall

Theneo-Gothicbuilding was designed by theIrisharchitectsThomas Newenham DeaneandBenjamin Woodward,mostly Woodward. The museum's design was directly influenced by the writings of criticJohn Ruskin,who involved himself by making various suggestions to Woodward during construction. Construction byLucas Brothersbegan in 1855, and the building was ready for occupancy in 1860.

The adjoining building that houses the Pitt Rivers Museum was the work ofThomas Manly Deane,son of Thomas Newenham Deane. It was built between 1885 and 1886.

The museum consists of a large square court with aglassroof, supported bycast ironpillars, which divide the court into three aisles. Cloistered arcades run around the ground and first floor of the building, with stone columns each made from a differentBritishstone,selected by geologistJohn Phillips(the Keeper of the Museum). The ornamentation of the stonework and iron pillars incorporates natural forms such as leaves and branches, combining thePre-Raphaelitestyle with thescientificrole of the building.

Statues of eminentmen of sciencestand around the ground floor of the court—fromAristotleandBaconthrough toDarwinandLinnaeus.Although the university paid for the construction of the building, the ornamentation was funded by public subscription, and much of it remains incomplete. The Irish stone carversO'Shea and Whelanhad been employed to create lively freehand carvings in the Gothic manner. When funding dried up, they offered to work unpaid, but they were accused by members of theUniversity Convocationof "defacing" the building by adding unauthorised work. According to Acland, the O'Shea brothers responded by caricaturing the members of Convocation as parrots and owls in the carving over the building's entrance. Acland insists that he forced them to remove the heads from these carvings.

On 12 January 1954 both the Natural History and Pitt Rivers museums wereGrade I listedas being "one of the most significant and carefully detailed museum complexes of the mid-late C19, as well as being a seminal monument to Oxford's scientific awakening."

Significant events

The 1860 evolution debate

Main article:1860 Oxford evolution debate

A significant debate in the history ofevolutionary biologytook place in the museum in 1860 at a meeting of theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science.Representatives of theChurchandsciencedebated the subject ofevolution,and the event is often viewed as symbolising the defeat of aliteralistinterpretation of theGenesis creation narrative.However, there are few eye-witness accounts of the debate, and most accounts of the debate were written by scientists.

CaricatureofThomas HuxleyfromVanity Fair

The biologistThomas HuxleyandSamuel Wilberforce,the Bishop of Oxford, are generally cast as the main protagonists in the debate. Huxley was a keen scientist and a staunch supporter ofDarwin's theories. Wilberforce had supported the construction of the museum as the centre for thesciencedepartments, for the study of the wonders ofGod'screations.

On the Wednesday of the meeting, 27 June 1860,botanistCharles Daubenypresented a paper onplant sexuality,which made reference to Darwin's theory ofnatural selection.Richard Owen,a zoologist who believed thatevolutionwas governed bydivineinfluence, criticised the theory pointing out that thebrainof thegorillawas more different from that ofmanthan that of otherprimates.Huxley stated that he would respond to this comment in print, and declined to continue the debate. However, rumours began to spread that the Bishop of Oxford would be attending the conference on the following Saturday.

Initially, Huxley was planning to avoid the bishop's speech. However, evolutionistRobert Chambersconvinced him to stay.

Wilberforce's speech on 30 June 1860 was good-humoured and witty, but was an unfair attack onDarwinism,ending in the now infamous question to Huxley of whether "it was through his grandfather or grandmother that he claimed descent from a monkey." Some commentators suggested that this question was written by Owen, and others suggested that the bishop was taught by Owen. (Owen and Wilberforce had known each other since childhood.)

Wilberforce is purported to have turned to his neighbour,chemistProfessor Brodie and exclaiming, "The Lord has delivered him into mine hands." When Huxley spoke, he responded that he had heard nothing from Wilberforce to prejudice Darwin's arguments, which still provided the best explanation of the origin of species yet advanced. He ended with the equally famous response to Wilberforce's question, that he had "no need to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather, but that he would be ashamed of having for an ancestor a man of restless and versatile interest who distracts the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digression and skilled appeals to religious prejudice."

However it seems unlikely that the debate was as spectacular as traditionally suggested – contemporary accounts byjournalistsdo not make mention of the words that have become such notable quotations. Additionally, contemporary accounts suggest that it was not Huxley, but SirJoseph Hookerwho most vocally defendedDarwinismat the meeting.

While all the accounts of the event suggest that the supporters of Darwinism were the most persuasive, it seems likely that the exact nature of the debate was made more sensational in the reports of Huxley's supporters to encourage further support for Darwin's theories.

The 1894 demonstration of wireless telegraphy

The first public demonstration ofwireless telegraphytook place in the lecture theatre of the museum on 14 August 1894, carried out by ProfessorOliver Lodge.Aradiosignal was sent from the neighbouringClarendon Laboratorybuilding, and received by apparatus in the lecture theatre.

Charles Dodgson and the dodo

The museum displays a 1651 painting of adodobyFlemishartist,Jan Savery.Charles Dodgson, better known by his pen-nameLewis Carroll,was a regular visitor to the museum, and Savery's painting is likely to have influenced the character of theDodoin Carroll'sAlice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Collections

The museum collections are divided into three sections: Earth Collections covering thePalaeontologicalcollections and the mineral and rock collections, Life Collections which include zoological and entomological collections, and the Archive Collections.

TheHope Entomological Collections,numbering over five million specimens are held by the museum. The Hope Department was founded byFrederick William Hopeand the first appointed curator of the collections wasJohn Obadiah Westwood.Many important insect and arachnid specimens from various collectors and collections make up the museums holdings including (but not limited to) those ofOctavius Pickard-Cambridge,George Henry Verrall,Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean,Pierre André Latreille,Alfred Russel Wallace,Charles Darwin,Jacques Marie Frangile Bigot,andPierre Justin Marie Macquartamong others.

The museum today

The museum foregrounded by the 'Ghost Forest' installation, March 2011

The museum is led by a director (as of 2023ProfessorPaul Smith,formerly Head of the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at theUniversity of Birmingham),who succeeded ProfessorJim Kennedyin 2011, and there are front of house, education, outreach, IT, library, conservation, and technical staff.

Since 1997 the museum has benefited from external funding, from government and private sources, and undertaken a renewal of its displays. As well as central exhibits featuring the dodo anddinosaurs,there are sets of displays with contemporary designs but within restored Victorian cabinets, on a variety of themes: Evolution, Primates, the History of Life, Vertebrates, Invertebrates and Rocks and Minerals. There are also a number of popular touchable items, which include two bears, a fox, and other taxidermy. Additionally, there is a meteorite and largefossilsandminerals.Visitors can also see large dinosaur reconstructions and a parade of mammal skeletons.

Megalosaur trail reconstruction

A famous group ofichnites(fossilised footprints) was found in alimestonequarryatArdley,20 km northeast of Oxford, in 1997. They were thought to have been made byMegalosaurusand possiblyCetiosaurus.There are replicas of some of these footprints, set across the front lawn of the museum.

The tower of the museum is a popular nesting area for migrating swifts. Cameras have been installed which broadcast a live stream to a display near the main entrance.

On March 17, 2020, the museum shut indefinitely due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.It reopened with some restrictions on September 22, 2020.

TheSequoiadendron giganteumtree in front of the museum was 35.7m tall in 2006.

Keepers, secretaries and directors

Keepers of the University Museum

Name	from	To
John Phillips	1857	1874
Henry Smith	1874	1883
Edward Burnett Tylor	1883	1902

Secretaries to the Delegates of the University Museum

Name	from	To
SirHenry Alexander Miers	1902	1908
Gilbert Charles Bourne(acting secretary)	1908	1909
Henry Balfour	1909	1911
Herbert Lister Bowman	1911	1925
Thomas Vipond Barker	1925	1928
Sydney G. P. Plant	1928	1955
Geoffrey E. S. Turner	1956	1964

Directors of the University Museum of Natural History

Name	from	To
Keith Thomson	1998	2003
Jim Kennedy	2003	2011
Paul Smith	2011

In popular culture

The Museum has been featured in several movies, television shows and documentaries.

Several scenes for the 2004Animal PlanetDocufictionfilmThe Last Dragon(known in the United States asDragons: A Fantasy Made Real) were filmed at the Oxford museum.

Various scenes were filmed around Oxford for the 2017 blockbusterscience fictionActionsequelTransformers: The Last Knight,one scene where Viviane Wembly is giving a tour to a group of students featuringLaura HaddockandAnthony Hopkinswas shot in the university and museum.

Scenes were shot at the museum for theBBC OneandHBOfantasy dramaHis Dark Materials.

A deleted scene for theMarvelSuperhero filmEternalsfeaturingKit HaringtonandLia McHughwas filmed at the museum.

See also

• TheAbbot's Kitchen,an early chemistry laboratory next to the museum, built at the same time
• Radcliffe Science Library,the science library of Oxford University, close to the museum
• Museum of Oxford,dedicated to the history of the city of Oxford

External links

• History of the Insect collections
• Virtual Tour of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History 2014