The Museum of Oxford (MOX) is a

history museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, covering the history of the City and its people. The museum includes both permanent and temporary displays featuring artefacts relating to Oxford's history from prehistoric times to the present day. The museum also acts as a public meeting space which people and organisations rent for both public and private events. Other activities facilitated by the museum include frequent public talks by historians and local cultural organisations, organised school tours, family activities, adult learning workshops, and an older people's program. The museum contains a gift shop stocked with items related to Oxford's history and cultural heritage, including books, toys, food, clothing, postcards. The museum is situated in Oxford city centre, located inside

Oxford Town Hall Oxford Town Hall is a public building in St Aldate's Street in central Oxford, England. It is both the seat of Oxford City Council and a venue for public meetings, entertainment and other events. It also includes the Museum of Oxford. Although ...

on St Aldate's street.

History of the museum

The Museum of Oxford was first opened in 1975 inside Oxford Town Hall, occupying the former premises of the Oxford Public Library. The museum is situated inside Oxford Town Hall, which was first opened in 1897 and was built by the architect Henry Hare in the

Jacobethan The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance ( ...

style. In 2005 the museum was awarded a financial grant by the Big Lottery funding scheme, ''Home Front Recall''. This project aimed to collect and preserve memories of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

from residents in Oxfordshire to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the war's end. In 2009 Oxford City Council considered closing the Museum of Oxford to save money, as the upkeep of the museum was costing £200,000 annually. However the closure of the museum was opposed by the Oxford Civic Society, who campaigned for its continuation and helped the museum organise a rota of volunteers to keep the museum running on a reduced cost. In 2018 the museum acted as a temporary home to archaeological artifacts uncovered during the construction of Oxford's Westgate Shopping Centre. Museum_of_Oxford,_gift_shop

Refurbishment - 2018-2021

From July 2018 to October 2021 the museum closed for a refurbishment which tripled the size of the museum space. The estimated cost of the refurbishment was 3.2 million, but was completed with a budget of 2.8 million by the architectural firm Purcell, and was funded by

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

, the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, and Oxford City Council. The refurbishment raised the number of exhibits from 286 to around 750. In 2020 Oxford City Council leader Susan Brown suggested that Oriel College's infamous statue of Cecil Rhodes could be relocated to the Museum of Oxford. During this time which encompassed the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the museum begun focusing more heavily on online material and temporary displays were erected in other rooms also located inside Oxford Town Hall.

Expansion - 2021-present

Since the 2021 October reopening the museum has relied upon a large network of over 100 volunteers. The museum also begun hosting a series of workshops for school children to teach them about local history. Also in 2021 the museum won a National Lottery grant of £240,000 for its Hidden Histories project. Museum of Oxford volunteer with maps

In 2022 the museum hosted a Digital Artist in Residence to create digital artworks featuring Oxfordshire's folklore and legends. The end result was an interactive videogame exploring pre-Christian British mythology.

Themes

The Museum of Oxford focuses solely on the history and culture of the

City of Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the U ...

, with a focus on the people of the city who are residents rather than the University of Oxford. Such themes included within the displays include football, women's rights, policing, entertainment, engineering, social history, Jewish and Christian history, archaeology, and British military history. In recent years there has been a shift towards creating more displays featuring Black British history and LGBTIQA+ history. In 2021 following the refurbishments the Museum of Oxford had unveiled a temporary Windrush display celebrating the history of Caribbean people in Oxford since the 1950s.

Key exhibits

Some of the museum's most notable items and exhibits include: * Oliver Cromwell's death mask * Artefacts from Oxford's Jewish quarter * Oxford's city crest, gifted by

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

* A chunk of the infamous

Cutteslowe Cutteslowe is a suburb of north Oxford, England, between Sunnymead and Water Eaton. Archaeology and toponym The toponym "Cutteslowe" is derived from Old English. The earliest known record of it is from AD 1004 as ''Cuðues hlaye'', which seems ...

Wall *

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

artefacts for measuring nuclear fallout * Tickets from

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...

concert in Oxford * A copy of Pink Newspaper, Oxford's first LGBT newspaper * Personal possessions of

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland * Personal possessions of

Alice Liddell Alice Pleasance Hargreaves (''née'' Liddell, ; 4 May 1852 – 16 November 1934), was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip beca ...

, the inspiration for Alice of

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...

* A tin of Frank Coopers Marmalade which was taken on

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...

's ill-fated journey to the South Pole

Temporary and online exhibits

Alongside permanent displays, the Museum of Oxford has hosted a number of temporary exhibits. Past examples have included ''Of Ordinary Things'' featuring art by Iraqi women living in Oxford, and ''Queering Spires'' which won the National Lottery's 'Sustainable Project of the Year Award'. One of the most common activities facilitated by the museum are memory collecting events where local people are encouraged to visit the museum to share items, photographs, and memories of their lives in Oxford. One such event was the ''Sporting Oxford Collecting Day'' in 2019 which encouraged residents to share memories of sports in Oxford. The museum also hosts occasional online displays, one of which was a project called ''City Stories'' in 2022 which sought to collect and preserve oral histories and photographs from the city's residents. The museum also hosts temporary events parallel to wider Oxford celebrations, such as facilitating an arts and crafts workshop called ''Queenly Crafts'' as a part of Oxford's annual Alice Day celebrations.

Gallery

File:Museum of Oxford, main entrance.jpg, MOX entrance (inside town hall) File:Museum of Oxford main gallery room.jpg, View of MOX main gallery from gift shop File:Museum of Oxford main gallery.jpg, View of MOX main hall from seating area File:Museum of Oxford - historic shop front.jpg, An interactive exhibit for trying on historic cloths File:Map of Oxford Town Hall.jpg, Map of

Accessibility

Every room within the Museum of Oxford is wheelchair accessible. This includes a lift to access both galleries and areas which are not ordinarily open to the public. However the steps in front of the main entrance to Oxford city hall are not wheelchair accessible, and disabled visitors will need to enter via an alternative entrance. Most display cases are designed so that they can be viewed from wheelchair height. Admission to the museum is free and the galleries are open every day except Sundays and holidays.

Rented spaces

The basement areas of the Museum of Oxford hold two meeting halls which the museum rents for both public and private events. The largest room is called the Museum Makers Space, the smallest is called the Learning Studio. Also available is a kitchenette, museum props, Wi-Fi, furniture, baby changing areas, gender neutral toilets, and on-site catering. Museum spaces are also rented for filming and photographic locations.

References

External links

Museum of Oxford website

Virtual Tour of Museum of Oxford
Museum of Oxford Museums established in 1975 Museums in Oxford

Local museums in Oxfordshire Museum of Oxford {{UK-museum-stub History museums