Hightlight
-
Wifi
Oxford’s History of Science Museum was originally built as the site of Old Ashmolean Building in 1683, and it is the world’s oldest surviving purpose-built museum building.
The original concept of the museum was to institutionalise the new learning about nature that appeared in the 17th century. Experiments concerning natural philosophy were undertaken in a chemical laboratory in the basement, while lectures and demonstrations took place in the School of Natural History.
In 1924, Lewis Evans donated his collection of historic scientific instruments, creating the Lewis Evans Collection. With more donations, the museum’s name was changed to the Museum of the History of Science in 1935. Eventually, in 2018 the university renamed it the History of Science Museum.