John and I recently spend a lovely evening at the Oxford Natural History Museum, also called the Oxford University Museum -- one of my favorite buildings in Oxford. It was closed last year while the spectacular glass roof was cleaned and repaired as well as all of the display cases and dinosaur bones. The results are simply stunning!
The museum was built in 1861 in a Neo-gothic style with a spectacular glass roof supported by cast iron pillars. They divide the large main court into three separate aisles.
Cloistered arcades run around the ground and first floor of the building with beautiful stone columns made from a variety of British stone.
The main attraction of the museum are the dinosaurs and the iconic the dodo bird...
...the spectacular architectural detail...
...a procession of mammal skeletons...
...whale skeletons...
...and displays in lovely Victorian cabinets, on a variety of themes: Evolution, Primates, the History of Life, Vertebrates, Invertebrates and Rocks & Minerals.
My favorite are the display of birds, the meteorite and the fossils and minerals collections.
The dinosaurs are pretty cool too!
The museum is a delightful venue for an evening event. In this case we were there for the 10th anniversary of the Executive MBA Program at the Said Business School at Oxford University.
It was a pleasure to attend for many reasons, not least of which was a chance to see the museum without the usual crowds.
This spectacular hall housed the famous showdown in 1the 860's between the Bishop of Oxford Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Henry Huxley.They were hotly debating Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.
The debate is best remembered today for a heated exchange in which Wilberforce supposedly asked Huxley whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey. Huxley is said to have replied that he would not be ashamed to have a monkey for his ancestor, but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used his great gifts to obscure the truth.
Another reason the museum is so beloved is because of it's connection to Alice in Wonderland and Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll...
...and the fact that the museums houses the most complete remains of a single Dodo anywhere in the world -- a bird that has been extinct since 1662.
The Oxford mathematician Charles Dodgson was a regular visitor to the Museum. Specimens he saw there inspired some of the characters in his famous stories of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which he wrote under the more familiar name Lewis Carroll.
If you haven't seen the newly cleaned and restored Oxford University Museum, it is well worth a visit. Just avoid Saturdays and school holidays if you want to miss the crowds.
My favorite Lewis Carroll quotations From Alice in Wonderland:
“Curiouser and curiouser!”
“If you don't know where you are going any road can take you there”
“Have I gone mad?
I'm afraid so, but let me tell you something, the best people usually are.”
