William Huddesford (1732–1772): his role in reanimating the Ashmolean Museum, his collections, researches and support network

Abstract

Between 1755 and 1772 the fortunes of the ailing Ashmolean Museum at Oxford were turned round through the efforts of a youthful and industrious keeper, William Huddesford. His modest demeanour, combined with a willingness to seek advice from naturalists more experienced than himself, led Huddesford into lengthy correspondence with a number of influential contemporaries, notably William Borlase, much of which survives to shed light on curatorial preoccupations of the day; so too do the inventories which he compiled, from which information on the network of contributors to the collection can be reconstructed. Huddesford also had an impressive publication record, particularly in bringing into print new editions of works based on specimens that had come to form part of the Ashmolean's collections, including Martin Lister's Historia conchyliorum and Edward Lhwyd's Lithophylacii britannici ichnographia. Documentation survives for all of these exercises, and combines to provide important insights into eighteenth-century museum practice.