Out of the Ordinary
Some things in Oxford are temporary. Like sunshine. Other things - like the signs that warn against walking on the grass - are very permanent. But the fact that something is permanent shouldn't mean that it is ignored. For one thing, college will fine you, and for another, the fact that it's stuck around for as long as it has may mean it has some inherent worth.
One day I may come to appreciate the finer qualities of a lawn where the freshly-mown stripes are clear, unmarred by callous picnickers. There are certainly lots of colleges which prefer their lawns untrodden, and an equal number, at least, who think that the things on permanent display in the museums and galleries of Oxford have something going for them.
They may not have the glamour and fizz of the temporary exhibitions, the blink-and-you've-missed-it exhibitions of Modern Art Oxford, or the sense of exclusiveness which hovers around the talks and debates at the Union. Yet these permanent collections have staying power.
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, opened in 1683, making it one of the oldest public museums in the world. Parts of the original collection have been on display pretty much ever since. Just as all the libraries in Oxford seem to be connected to the Bodleian in one way or another, so all the museums and galleries are connected to the Ashmolean. It is simply overflowing with stuff. The Stradivarius violin, the 'Messiah', is one of the most famous violins in the world, and it is a gorgeous thing to behold. Theoretically it could sell for an easy £10 million. Fortunately for us, the museum has no intention of selling it.
There are some other odd curiosities, perhaps more at home in the Pitt Rivers, but which the Ashmolean is unwilling to part with. Up the stairs to the right as you go in the main door you can wander into a little room dominated by a huge cloak-like garment stretched out in a case in front of you. There you'll find the 'Ark', part of the original collection still kept in the Ashmolean itself. This is also where you'll find Guy Fawkes' Lantern, a death mask of Oliver Cromwell and that cloak, a mantle that once belonged to Pocahontas' father, Powhatan.
Like most of these things, whether you find the pieces in the Ashmolean interesting or not is down to taste. The Alfred Jewel, a Dark Age treasure, inscribed AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN (Alfred ordered me to be made), was probably worth about 300 sheep when it was created in the ninth century. For a gold and crystal ornament two and a half inches long, that's a lot of sheep. And that's not all: coins, paintings, drawings and statues are all packed into the Ashmolean. While Japanese porcelain may not be everyone's cup of tea, you don't have to look at that exhibition if you don't want to.
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History has an entirely different atmosphere to the Ashmolean. The museum houses the '-ical' collections: zoological, entomological, geological, palaeontological and mineralogical (try saying that seven times fast!). On Parks Road, opposite Keble, the museum is dominated more than anything else by its Victorian neo-Gothic architecture. Even the 40ft Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton is dwarfed by the huge glass ceiling over the central court and it's elaborate wrought iron decoration. It is precisely what you would imagine of the place where the debate on Darwinism was held in 1860.
Squeezed in around the architecture are the displays; famous, but disappointingly small, cases dedicated to the dodo and to Oxford's connection to Alice in Wonderland. A large proportion of the remaining space is given over to the largest taxidermy collection I have seen. Fascinating and macabre, the examples of birds and animals from all over the world mimic life in everything but their glassy expressions. The fossils and shells on the balcony are stunning reminders of the grace of nature, but it is the vivariums which will really grab your attention.
Any Disney-induced delusions you may harbour that crickets are in some way cute will be shattered in the face of the noisy reality. Then there are the cockroaches, and the stick insects which genuinely look like sticks. But even though the bugs and insects are repellent, you can't help but look, forced away only when you are finally convinced that the spider you can't see in the case is crawling down the back of your neck.
The Pitt Rivers Museum of Anthropology and World Archaeology is the most colourful of the three, and what it lacks in architecture, it makes up for in atmosphere. The dimmed lights, handwritten labels, and tightly packed display, cluttered with vivid and intriguing artefacts, makes wandering round the Pitt Rivers a totally different experience to loitering in the Christ Church Picture Gallery or strolling round the Botanic Garden.
The most iconic, and largest, item on display is the totem pole, reaching a staggering 11.36m, but the variety of displays makes the Pitt Rivers almost indescribable. On the second floor, for example, there is a case devoted solely to bows and arrows from around the world, while the ground floor contains cases on how various peoples dealt with their enemies, religious statuettes, and baskets: the juxtaposition of the sacred and mundane both unusual and illuminating.
These displays and exhibitions are not going anywhere, so there is no need for you to rush out to see them. But if you have a spare afternoon, or are walking past and have a moment, experiencing the museums and galleries of Oxford is an opportunity to enter a magical world of idiosyncrasies and marvellous, weird collections.
These are not things that should be overlooked merely because they are always there.
27th May 2004