Musaeum Tradescantianum

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The Musaeum Tradescantianum was the first public museum to be established in England. Located at Lambeth in south London, it comprised a collection of curiosities assembled by John Tradescant the elder and his son in a building called The Ark, and a botanical collection in the grounds of the building. Tradescant divided the exhibits into natural objects (naturalia) and manmade objects (artificialia). ^[1] The first account of the collection, by Peter Mundy, is from 1634. ^[2] Shortly after Tradescant's death in 1662, the museum's contents were acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. ^[3]

The Tradescant collection is the earliest major English Cabinet of Curiosities. Other famous collections in Europe preceded it, for example Emperor Rudolf II's Kunst- und Wunderkammer was well-established at Prague by the end of the 16th century.

[edit] References

1. ^ "Musaeum Tradescantianum", Ashmolean Museum
2. ^ "The Tradescant Collection", Ashmolean Museum
3. ^ "Tradescants", The Vauxhall Society

[edit] External links

• Review of Jennifer Potter, Strange Blooms: The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants
• Another review of the above book