Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean is Britain’s first museum. The collection began as a Cabinet of Curiosities developed by John Tradescant installed in his house at Lambeth. During the late 1650s the collection was acquired by Elias Ashmole, who then gifted the collection to the University of Oxford. The Ashmolean’s neo-classical building, designed by C.R. Cockerell, opened to the public in 1846. 2009 marked the opening of 39 new galleries to provide the Museum with 100% more display space. The Western Art Department houses an impressive range of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts from 1300 to the present day. The collection includes John Ruskin’s Teaching collection and The Pissarro Family Archive. The Print Room contains works on paper including superlative works by Raphael and Michelangelo and an unrivalled collection of Samuel Palmer’s Shoreham works.