Editing Ashmolean Museum (section)

===Beaumont Street===

[[File:Ashmolean Museum and Taylorian Institute, Oxford; panoramic Wellcome V0014258.jpg|thumb|Wood-engraving of the Ashmolean {{Circa|1845}}]]

The present building dates from 1841 to 1845. It was designed as the University Galleries by [[Charles Robert Cockerell|Charles Cockerell]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Alden's Oxford Guide|location= Oxford|publisher= Alden & Company|date= 1946|page= 105}}</ref> in a [[Classicism|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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Alden's Oxford Guide|location= Oxford|publisher= Alden & Company|date= 1946|page= 103}}</ref>
 
[[Arthur Evans|Sir Arthur Evans]], who was appointed keeper in 1884 and retired in 1908, is largely responsible for the current museum.<ref>Evans, Joan. Time and Chance: The story of Arthur Evans and his forebears. London, Longmans, 1943.</ref> 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 was put on a sound footing.<ref name="Brief History">{{cite book |last1=MacGregor |first1=Arthur |title=The Ashmolean Museum: A Brief History of the Museum and Its Collections |date=2001 |publisher=Ashmolean Museum Oxford |location=Oxford |page=56 }}</ref> A donation of £10,000 from Fortnum (£{{formatprice|{{Inflation|UK|10000|1894|r=-3}}|1}} as of {{CURRENTYEAR}}) 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.<ref>[https://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/media/global/wwwadminoxacuk/localsites/estatesservices/documents/conservation/Ashmolean_Museum.pdf "The Ashmolean Museum Oxford Conservation Plan"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602071939/https://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/media/global/wwwadminoxacuk/localsites/estatesservices/documents/conservation/Ashmolean_Museum.pdf |date=2 June 2020 }}. admin.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved on 24 August 2018.</ref> The museum became a depository for some of the important archaeological finds from Evans' excavations in Crete.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

After 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, Oxford|Museum of the History of Science]], with exhibitions including the scientific instruments given to Oxford University by [[Lewis Evans (collector)|Lewis Evans]], amongst them the world's largest collection of [[astrolabe]]s.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Johnston |first1=Stephen |title=Astrolabes in Medieval Jewish Society |url=http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/research/projects/jewish-astrolabes/ |website=The Warburg Institute |publisher=University of London, School of Advanced Study |access-date=5 November 2015 |quote=The Museum of the History of Science in Oxford has the world's largest collection of astrolabes. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128084038/http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/research/projects/jewish-astrolabes |archive-date=28 November 2015 }}</ref>

[[Charles Buller Heberden]] left £1,000 (£{{formatprice|{{Inflation|UK|1000|1921|r=-3}}|3}} as of {{CURRENTYEAR}}) to the university in 1921, which was used for the Coin Room at the museum.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kraay, C. M.|author2=Sutherland, C. H. V.|name-list-style=amp|url=http://www.ashmolean.org/documents/HCRhistory.pdf|title=The Heberden Coin Room: Origin and Development|publisher=Ashmolean Museum|location=Oxford|date=1972|edition=Revised 1989 and 2001|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061103114708/http://www.ashmolean.org/documents/HCRhistory.pdf|archive-date=3 November 2006}}</ref>

In 2012, the Ashmolean was awarded a grant of $1.1m by the [[Andrew W. Mellon Foundation]] to establish the [[Ashmolean Museum University Engagement Programme|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ashmolean.org/news/?id=179|website= Ashmolean.org|title=News|access-date=8 October 2013}}</ref>