Ashmole, Elias

Ashmole, Elias ăshmōˈlēən [key], the first such public institution in England. He later donated his library to Oxford, and the whole was housed in a building erected by Sir Christopher Wren. The collection is now in a 19th-century building and includes European works of art from medieval to present times as well as Asian works.

See his Autobiographical and Historical Notes and Correspondence, ed. by C. H. Josten (1967).

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