STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 



533 



VI.— OXFORD. 



' 20. UNIVERSITY MUSEUM, ETHNOGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT (PITT 

 RIVERS COLLECTION). 



In Oxford, that famous old university town, which I visited first in 

 1S78, the chief attraction for me this time was the famous ethnograph- 

 ical collection presented to the Oxford Musemn in 1884 by Col. Lane 

 Fox (later (xeneral Pitt Rivers), who died in 1900. Subsequently 

 Colonel Fox founded a new collection in Farnham (AViltshire), not far 

 from Stoneheno-e, which has ])ecome quite as noted, but which, as it 

 was too far away for me, I did not visit. The ethnographical collec- 

 tion is in an annex added in 1887 to the university museum, a modern 



Fig. 84— University Museum, Oxt'oni. Klhnouraiihiciil scctidii. (Pitt Rivers Collection.) 



gothic structure (1857-1860). I pass over the natural-science collec- 

 tions, as I have no special remarks to make regarding them." The 

 ethnographical collection, however, is distinguished from all other 

 similar ethnographical collections in the world by the manner of its 

 installation. 



''In all ethnographical museums a geographical classification is 

 adopted as the principal basis of arrangement, whereb}' all objects 

 from the same region are grouped together — a system obviously 



"Prof. E. Ray Lanke.ster, of the British ^luseuni, .said in 1S97 oonrerning the build- 

 ing of the Oxford Universit}' IMuseuni: "Our great university inuseuiu building is 

 simply an absurdity." lieport Froceedlnys ^fuseumtl Associatiou, 1897, pp, 21-22 (1903). 



