Oxford University Natural History Museum

About

The Oxford University Museum of Natural History was built between 1855 and 1860 and opened in 1860. Designed by Irish architects Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward in neo-Gothic style, it was directly influenced by the writings of John Ruskin. Its central court sits under a glass roof carried on cast-iron pillars, with stone columns each cut from a different British stone chosen by geologist John Phillips. The collections number around seven million specimens, including the world's only soft-tissue dodo specimen and celebrated dinosaur skeletons. On 30 June 1860 the museum hosted the famous debate on Darwin's theory of evolution between Thomas Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce. Entry is free, and the building also provides the only public access to the adjoining Pitt Rivers Museum.