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The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology and is one of four University museums (along with the Museum of the History of Science, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum). The four museums form part of the University's GLAM (Gardens, Libraries and Museums) group, together with the Bodleian Libraries and Botanic Gardens and Harcourt Arboretum. 

The Ashmolean came into existence in 1682, when the wealthy antiquary Elias Ashmole gifted his collection to the University. It opened as Britain’s first public museum, and the world’s first university museum, in 1683.

Though the collection has evolved considerably, the founding principle remains: that knowledge of humanity across cultures and across times is important to society. A laudable intention, but the uncomfortable truth is that much of the collection was inevitably selected and obtained as a result of colonial power.