An Enlightened Institution: The Birth of the British Museum

In the early seventeenth century, London and a few other of the larger cities in Britain had public museums, but it was not until the collecting mania of Sir Hans Sloane and similarly Enlightened men that Britain had a museum truly worthy of its Age. Enlightening the British looks at the Museum in the context of the intellectual world of eighteenth-century Britain, taking us on a journey to a time when literacy had reached unprecedented levels and a thirst for knowledge was just beginning to develop.

A Taste of the Times

People have always been fascinated by food and cookery as it is one of the things that allows us to relate to our ancestors; after all, even David Blaine has to eat eventually. But it is easy to overlook how, just like fashion, certain foods, ingredients and dishes come and go in their popularity, and some even come round again. A recent TV programme which follows thirty children who are put on 1940s rations has even brought renewed interest in recipes from the Second World War where ‘Mock’ sausages and Beetroot Pudding are on the menu once more.

Remembering E O James

I often feel that there are fewer “characters” about today than there were when I first came to Oxford … almost forty years ago. All sorts of people came and went through the galleries of the Ashmolean Museum mostly on their way to the library where the serious work was done...

Of all the new books that have passed over the desks of the Oxbow staff this month, these, for whatever reason, are the ones that grabbed their attention.

New Releases

This month sees the release of two new titles from the Oxford University School of Archaeology:-