Country England Established 2001 Size 300,000 Founded 24 September 2001 | Type Academic library Location St John Street, Oxford Phone +44 1865 288190 Staff 32 | |
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Items collected The University of Oxford collection specialising in archaeology, art history and classics Address 1 St John St, Oxford OX1 2LG, UK Hours Open today · 9AM–10PMMonday9AM–10PMTuesday9AM–10PMWednesday9AM–10PMThursday9AM–10PMFriday9AM–10PMSaturday11AM–6PMSundayClosedSuggest an edit Similar Bodleian Library, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Central Library, University of Oxford, Oxford Union | ||
The Sackler Library holds a large portion of the classical, art historical, and archaeological works belonging to the University of Oxford, England.
Contents
History
The Library was completed in 2001 and opened on 24 September of that year, replacing the former library of the Ashmolean Museum. The library is located at 1 St John Street, to the rear of the Ashmolean. It was founded with a donation by the multi-millionaire Dr Mortimer Sackler.
Designed by architects Robert Adam with Paul Hanvey of ADAM Architecture, it is a distinctive building, as the central block is circular. It is appropriate to its Classical purpose, as one of the outer walls is decorated by a mock-Classical frieze; also, its creators say that the entrance is based upon the Doric Temple of Apollo at Bassae, first excavated by Charles Robert Cockerell, the man who designed the Ashmolean Museum.
Collections
Its holdings incorporate the collections of four older libraries, namely the Ashmolean library, the Classics Lending Library, the Eastern Art Library, and the History of Art Library. Major subject areas are:
The Heracles Papyrus, a fragment of 3rd century Greek manuscript containing a poem about the Labours of Heracles, is held by the library, along with over 100,000 fragments found at Oxyrhynchus. See also Oxyrhynchus Papyri.