Editing Arthur Evans (section)

===Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum===
{{Multiple image|perrow = 1|total_width = 200
| image1            = Margaret and Arthur Evans 22 June 1888.jpg
| caption1          = Margaret and Arthur Evans in 1888
| image2            = Ashmolean.jpg
| caption2          = The Ashmolean Museum
}}
Evans and his wife moved back to Oxford, renting a house there in January 1883. This period of unemployment was the only one of his life; he employed himself finishing up his Balkan studies. He completed his articles on Roman roads and cities there. It was suggested that he apply to a new professorship of Classical Archaeology at Oxford. When he found out that Jowett and Newton were among the electors, he decided not to apply. He wrote to Freeman that to confine archaeology to classics was an absurdity.<ref name=cot92/> Instead he and Margaret travelled to Greece, seeking out [[Heinrich Schliemann]] at Athens. Margaret and Sophia had a visit for several hours, during which Evans examined the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] antiquities at hand with Heinrich.<ref>{{harvnb|Cottrell|1958|p=93}}.</ref>

Meanwhile, the [[Ashmolean Museum]], an adjunct of [[Oxford University]], was in a chaotic state of transition. It had been a natural history museum, but the collections had been transferred to other museums. The lower floor housed some art and archaeology, but the upper floor was being used for university functions. [[John Henry Parker (writer)|John Henry Parker]], appointed the first keeper in 1870, had the task of trying to manage it. His efforts to negotiate with the art collector [[C. Drury E. Fortnum|Charles Drury Edward Fortnum]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |quote=Born Charles Edward Fortnum (Drury added later in Australia) DCL FSA (1820–99) |title=Oxford Men and their Colleges 1890–92 |url=http://arthistorians.info/fortnumc |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Historians |access-date=31 July 2018 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807003906/https://arthistorians.info/fortnumc |url-status=dead }}</ref> over housing his extensive collection, were being undercut by university administrators. In January 1884, Parker died. The museum was in the hands of its assistant keepers, one of whom, Edward Evans (no relation), was to be Arthur Evans' executive during Evans' extended absences.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

The strategy for the museum now was to convert it to an art and archaeology museum, expanding the remaining collections. In November 1883, Fortnum wrote to Evans asking for his assistance in locating some letters in the [[Bodleian Library]] that would help to validate a noted ring in his collection; he did so on the advice of John Evans of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]]. Unable to find the letters, Arthur Evans suggested Fortnum visit Oxford. Fortnum in fact was becoming dissatisfied with rivals for his collection, the [[South Kensington Museum]], because of their "lack of a properly informed and competent person as keeper." Evans had the right qualifications and took the position of keeper at the Ashmolean when it was offered.<ref>The details of the complicated and extensive negotiations for the Fortnum collection, at which Evans excelled, may be found in {{cite journal | first=Ben | last=Thomas | title=Hercules and the Hydra: C.D.E. Fortnum, Evans and the Ashmolean Museum | journal=Journal of the History of Collections | volume=11 | year=1999 | pages=159–169 | issue=2 | doi=10.1093/jhc/11.2.159}}</ref>

In 1884, therefore, Evans, at the age of 34, was appointed Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. He held a grand inauguration at which he outlined his planned changes, publishing it as ''The Ashmolean as a Home of Archaeology in Oxford''.<ref>{{harvnb|Evans|1884}}.</ref> Already the great frontage building had been erected. Evans took it in the direction of being an archaeology museum. He insisted the artefacts be transferred back to the museum, negotiated for and succeeded in acquiring Fortnum's collections, later gave his father's collections to the museum, and finally, bequeathed his own Minoan collections, not without the intended effect. Today it has the finest Minoan assemblages outside Crete. Evans gave the [[Ilchester Lectures]] for 1884 on the Slavonic conquest of Illyricum, which remained unpublished.<ref>Bejtullah D. Destani, ed., & Arthur Evans, ''Ancient Illyria: An Archaeological Exploration'' (2006), p. xvi</ref>