I will be acting as a student ambassador at the Oxbridge Classics open day next Monday! If you have any questions about studying at Oxford or applications, etc, or you just want to attend some free Oxbridge lectures (from my own tutors), there are still online tickets available! Or, if anybody’s going in person, I look forward to seeing you in Cambridge
To do Classics! - the subject I love SO SO much… oh my gosh…
I finally did it, I finally made my dreams come true. I can finally release all the excitement and all the want that I made myself hold in and suppress because I didn’t want to tempt fate. And after my interview experience I wouldn’t even dare think about a future where I went to Cambridge. I was dealing with a lot of family issues at the time and my second interview was just a slow and painful death by Latin grammar, I remember sitting in silence for what felt like forever after logging off of that final zoom, just thinking I had thrown it all away over the ablative case. And I spent weeks thinking that. And I was wrong. And I have never been more happy to be wrong in my life.
We’re 338 years old today! On 24 May 1683, the doors of the Ashmolean Museum were officially opened to the public.
The Ashmolean came into existence when the wealthy antiquary Elias Ashmole gifted his collection to the University in 1682. He did so ‘because the knowledge of Nature is very necessary to human life and health.’ It opened as Britain’s first public museum, and the world’s first university museum.
Below is a print of the museum by Emery Walker from 1909. However, this wasn’t actually the original location of the museum. The first site of the Ashmolean was on Broad Street, where the Museum of the History of Science is now.
Celebrate with us today - what are some of your favourite Ashmolean memories? Let us know in the comments below.
Happy #WorldTurtleDay! Here are a few turtles from our collections.
The first turtle made of wood is an inrō - a traditional Japanese case for holding small objects that was suspended from a sash worn around the waist. Traditional Japanese robes did not have pockets, so objects were often carried this way in a variety of different vessels. The inrō was particularly suitable for carrying anything small; this object measures only 11 x 71 centimetres.
Also below is a blue figure of a tortoise from 8th century China, and a terracotta vessel in the form of a turtle from late 3rd century-early 2nd century BC North India.
MUSEUM SECRETS: Toad Vaccines and Magical Jewellery
In today’s episode of our Museum Secrets podcast, join Curator Matthew Winterbottom as he explores ancient beliefs about disease testing and vaccines, through our collection of toadstone rings.
These bizarre pieces of jewellery have a lot to tell us about the human effort to find hope in the face of illness and uncertainty, even when it involves the strangest superstitions. And at the end of the day, it turns out that toadstones have nothing to do with toads after all…
Sometimes we find things in our collections that we simply *must* share with you immediately. This bowl from, featuring some little fish amongst waterweeds, is one of those things.
Made from porcelain with blue underglazing, this bowl comes from the Yongzheng Period of the Qing Dynasty in China, c. 1723–1735.
“The stories of the ancient Middle East have generally been told through Western voices. Who you don’t hear are the voices of local people.”
Owning the Past (ملكية من بلاد الرافدين الى العراق ) is a dual language exhibition highlighting the long-lasting impact of the past on the present. It explores how the borders of the state of Iraq were established following the First World War when British control of the region included a fascination with its ancient past - one that led to a colonisation of Mesopotamian antiquity as much as the living communities. It questions what is meant by heritage and introduces voices and stories of people not previously visible in displays devoted to the very histories and heritage of their homelands.
In this film, we hear from some of those involved in the creation of the exhibition: Community Ambassadors Nuha Abdo and Mustafa Barcho; Community Engagement Officer Nicola Bird; Exhibition co-curators Paul Collins and Myfanwy Lloyd; and Artist Piers Secunda.
We are very happy to announce that the Ashmolean is now open!
Whether you want to visit your favourite objects in the galleries, explore a new exhibition or display, browse the shop or enjoy Afternoon Tea on the rooftop, we can’t wait to welcome you back.
To help keep everyone safe all visitors, including Members, need to book timed tickets in advance. Find out more and book today: ashmolean.org/plan-your-visit
British poet, illustrator and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born on this day in 1828. Rossetti, who is one of the stars of our upcoming exhibition, was a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood alongside William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.
Rossetti’s romantic medievalism inspired a second generation of Pre-Raphaelite painters, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Alongside his art, he was also known to write sonnets to accompany his pictures, and create art to illustrate the poems and literature that inspired him.
Rossetti’s personal life was closely linked to his work, in particular his relationship with his model and muse Jane Morris pictured in two of these portraits from our collection.
You can learn more about their relationship, see these works and much more in ‘Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & Watercolours’, opening 18 May. Book your tickets today
Happy #WorldTurtleDay! Here are a few turtles from our collections.
The first turtle made of wood is an inrō - a traditional Japanese case for holding small objects that was suspended from a sash worn around the waist. Traditional Japanese robes did not have pockets, so objects were often carried this way in a variety of different vessels. The inrō was particularly suitable for carrying anything small; this object measures only 11 x 71 centimetres.
Also below is a blue figure of a tortoise from 8th century China, and a terracotta vessel in the form of a turtle from late 3rd century-early 2nd century BC North India.
“En veces nuestros ojos, pensamiento, y palabras, saben detenerse, ponerse de pie. Cuando las desavenencias que entran por nuestros poros, nos conmueven, pero más allá de ese sentimentalismo al que nos puede transportar el amor y el dolor. La Soledad nos convoca a sentir … reencontrarnos, y mantenernos sobre sus recuerdos. Parece que nos invita a escuchar una poesía que detona la razón, una poesía de la nostalgia hecha movimiento y palanca de voces en silencio, rueda sincroniza con nuestro pensamiento para continuar nuestra propia historia. Con afán de motivación que se da o callan en el diario pregonar de la vida.”
On this day in 1811, Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from the University of Oxford for publishing a pamphlet entitled ‘The Necessity of Atheism’. Shelley is best known as a famous English poet, who was part of a group of fellow prominent writers including his wife Mary Shelley and Lord Byron. As well as being as being an author, Shelley was a radical political activist who advocated non-violent protest. Having begun study at Oxford in 1810, it is often said that he only attended one lecture during his time there. He published several works whilst at university, but it was his atheistic pamphlet which led to his appearance before the College fellows and his eventual expulsion as he refused to deny authorship. ‘The Necessity of Atheism’ argued that people do not choose their beliefs and thus atheists shouldn’t be persecuted. However it is unclear whether Shelley was personally an atheist; he may have instead been an agnostic or a pantheist. Either way, this document is an interesting insight into Shelley’s views and shows how atheism was stigmatised in the early nineteenth century.
“Truth has always been found to promote the best interests of mankind. Every reflecting mind must allow that there is no proof of the existence of a Deity”
At Oxford University, you have to wear full academic dress to your exams. A lot of people think it’s silly, a lot of other people like it, and a lot of people just get on with wearing it, because it’s a thing you have to do. (And the rules are gender-neutral now, which is a Cool Thing.)
Something you don’t have to have, but a lot of people do, is a carnation: white on your first exam, red on your last, and pink for everything in between.
