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A stunning renovation has breathed new life into the Oxford Museum of Natural History.
(Photo: Courtesy of Oxford University Museum of Natural History) |
Gaze at the sky through the stunningly restored Victorian glass roof at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (free), which reopened this February after a 14-month, $3.3 million renovation project. The relaunch returns many of the museum’s top attractions to their home after a year spent in odd locations (the king penguin at a fish market, the big-eyed trilobite at a local optician); now they’re all back in the cavernous neo-Gothic central hall, which is brimming with soaring dinosaur skeletons and famed exhibits like the Oxford dodo. The so-called �cathedral of science� is a work of art in itself: Look for saintly statues and busts of scientists like Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton, as well as botanically inspired carvings on the column capitals.
Stroll through Britain’s first public museum, the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology (free). Though the facade is neoclassical, the interiors are all modern, the result of a nearly $100 million transformation in 2009 that doubled gallery space. November 2011 saw the addition of the Galleries of Ancient Egypt and Nubia, with mummies, sarcophagi, and the shrine of King Taharqa. Downstairs, you’ll find a new gallery offering a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the museum business, with exhibits on conservation, forgeries, and an actual hands-on display showing the devastating impact of touching historic objects (hint: it’s not pretty). The museum’s era-spanning collection is worth a look as well, including drawings by Michelangelo and Raphael, modern Chinese and Japanese art, and even the gold posy ring that supposedly inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series.
Learn about the British war experience at the brand-new Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum ($8), which debuted this June in anticipation of the centennial of the Great War. The county’s military archival materials and memorabilia languished for the past 70 years in local barracks or rented buildings, but no more: The new $5 million project, dedicated to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, is located in the village of Woodstock, just north of the city and accessible by the s3 bus ($7). You’ll find galleries dedicated to espionage, the role of women in war, modern conflicts like the war in Afghanistan, and life and death on the front line. One historic figure looms particularly large here: Winston Churchill, born about a mile from the museum and once a captain in the local yeomanry regiment.