Museum of the History of Science

History

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.

The collection and the building itself now occupies a special position in the study of the history of science and in the development of western culture and collecting. One of the most iconic objects in the collection is a blackboard that Albert Einstein used on 16 May 1931 during his lectures while visiting Oxford, rescued by E. J. Bowen at the end of the lecture.