LGBTQ+ STORIES

June is  the UK's annual Pride Month, so we're celebrating the Ashmolean's LGBTQ+ connections and Pride stories represented in our collections. Also find out about the 'Out in Oxford' Trail.

 

OUT IN OXFORD TRAIL

The Out in Oxford museums' trail traces the history of the LGBTQ+ community through Oxford University's collections, featuring 25 objects across seven museums in Oxford. 
Discover Oxford Pride events in Pride Month

Ashmolean exhibit highlights on the trail (above) include a $50 US banknote countermarked with the words ‘Lesbian Money’, displayed in the Money Gallery, and the marble statue of Hermaphroditus on show in the Greek and Roman Sculpture Gallery.

 

VISIT THE ONLINE APP DOWNLOAD PDF TRAIL

 

Along with six other collections, the Ashmolean Museum is proud to have participated in this cross collections trail with six other collections in Oxford: the Bate Collection, the Bodleian Libraries, the Botanic Gardens, the Museum of the History of Science, the Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum.

 

More about the Out in Oxford trail project

 

 

PRIDE PROGRESS FLAG

This Pride Progress flag is made with a selection of works from our collection in celebration of LGBTQ+ life in Oxfordshire and around the world.⁠
 

Latest Pride colours flag June 2022 (including intersex people representation)

 ASHMOLEAN PRIDE RAINBOW ARTWORKS

Red: Chrysanthemum and bee by Qi Baishi (EAX.564)

Orange: Violin “Le Messie” (Messiah), 1716. Antonio Stradivari (WA1940.112)

Yellow: Yellow glazed sherd with dragon, China, 16th century (EAP.18639)

Green: Study of the Orchard of the Artist’s House at Eragny-sur-Epte, Camille Pissarro, 1890 (WA1952.6.335)

Blue: The Pine Grove at Miho in Suruga Province, Utagawa Hiroshige I (EAX.4374)

Violet: Sparta, Edward Lear, 1872 (WA1916.52)

Yellow (far left): Cloisonné necklace (bird detail), Antoine Tard & Alexis Falize (WA1964.29.1)

Purple (circle): Study of Dawn, Purple Clouds, John Ruskin (WA.RS.ED.005)

White: Fragment of painted stucco, 1750–1550 BC (AN1957.36)

Pink: Purple and Pink Flowers, Ren Xiong (EA1995.236)

Pale blue: Beaker with stylized scrolls, 12th century Iran (EA1992.9)

Brown: Textile fragment with birds. Egypt, 10th–15th century AD (EA1984.221)

Black: Japanese Octagonal box with landscape, 17th-18th century (EAX.3992)

CHALLENGING INTERPRETATIONS

Sculpted bust of a boy, Antinous

As part of the Our Museum, Our Voices ongoing collaboration, we asked University of Oxford students to reinterpret the labels for objects and works of art in the Museum galleries, including the Ashmolean.

These are written from personal experience and expertise, with participants considering their ethnicity, gender and sexuality in response to the collections. Look out for the Antinous Tinder profile and the 'queer body' of Hermaphroditus re-described.

Explore the Our Museum, Our Voices 2020 online exhibition