The Pitt Rivers museum was founded way back in the year1884. The founder of this museum was General Augustus Pitt Rivers, a very influential figure in the development of archeology and anthropology. General Augustus donated his collection to the Oxford University under the condition that a permanent lecturer in anthropology will be appointed. To date Museum staffs are involved in anthropology in the University. Originally about 20,000 items were donated; ofcourse the list has now grown up to about 500,000 items on display at the Museum. Many of the items have been collected by donations made by travelers, scholars and missionaries.
The collection in the Museum is arranged thematically rather than according to the dates of their origin. Its present layout owes a lot to the theories of General Augustus Pitt himself. General Augustus Pitt wanted to arrange the items he collected to show the progression in design and the evolution in human culture, from simple to complex. Anthropology however no longer accepts this concept and hence a display at the museum today celebrates cultural diversity.
This famous museum has an amazingly high density of objects on display at all times in the museum. All the displays are regularly changed. This museum displays one of the world’s finest collections.
The Pitt River Museum:
The entrance to the museum is on park road, it is through the Oxford University Museum Natural History (OUMNM). It is on the far side of the OUMNM. It is open seven days a week but has different timings. On Tuesdays to Sundays, it is open from 10 am to 4.30 pm and on a Monday or bank holidays, it is opened from 12pm to 4.30pm. Admission into the museum is absolutely free.
The museum displays archeological and ethnographic objects that have been discovered all over the world. There are some very thrilling articles put up on display in the museum, for example you can find the traditional dress of people from back in the 1870s, there are also some really cool masks displayed. The great thing about this museum is that a lot of information on each individual article is made available.
The Pitt river Museum underwent a bit of renovation and has a new extension. However, it is not all done with its renovation process. It is now undertaking another developmental phase, which it hopes to complete by 2009 latest.
The new plan will maintain the original entrance of the Pitt River Museum. This new project is going to cost the museum something close to 1.5 million pounds. The heritage lottery fund has made a generous award of 1 million pounds towards the building of the new phase. There have been other several organizations that have contributed towards the fund, if you like, you could pitch in and contribute as well. Due to the developmental work the museum will remain closed for a few months. The building process should begin sometime in July 2008 and will remain closed for sometime. As soon as the museum is given the dates, it will be posted on the web sites, papers and galleries. |
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