ABSTRACT
This chapter examines John Phillips' modest contribution to the Ashmolean as its keeper. At Oxford Phillips was keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1854 to 1870 and keeper of the University Museum from 1857 until his death. From March 1857 until spring 1860, when the Museum was structurally complete, Phillips' responsibilities as keeper tested his emollient judgement and administrative effectiveness. The delegacy and sub-delegacy also agreed that the keeper's house should be built on site to the south-east of the Museum, as Woodward envisaged in 1855. In the academic year 1860–1861 Phillips witnessed the installation of the Radcliffe Library in the Museum and oversaw the transfer of various collections to it, thus making it fully operational. Phillips wanted to unite in the Museum botany and palaeobotany, vegetable and animal physiology; and to have a botanic garden, which he viewed as a living museum, near other collections and the Radcliffe Library.
