The Museum of Oxford, situated in the Town Hall, is celebrating its 50th birthday. As part of the occasion, they opened late on the 26th September to commemorate the completion of their new exhibition, Our Oxford: 50 Years, 50 Stories, co-curated by the local community. The exhibition highlights 50 different experiences of the city, using personal memories and experiences to create a window into Oxford life, both past and present.
Since opening in 1975, the Museum of Oxford has focused on sharing the story of the city. It was taken over by the Oxford City Council in the 1990s, saved from closure by the Oxford Civic Society in the 2000s, and renovated in 2018 through a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant. Reopening in 2021, the redevelopment increased the size of the galleries and collection, and since then they have welcomed thousands of visitors and hosted hundreds of events.
Their new exhibition is a community-woven archive of Oxford life. One highlight was a series of oral history transcripts, accessed via an old-fashioned landline, which ranged from childhood recollections of Cheney School in the 1950s, to memories of the Jolly Farmer pub and shops along the Cowley Road during the mid-to-late 20th century. Current school children chose a wooden toy train from the 1930s to be put on display, indicating parallels between their own childhoods and those from almost a hundred years earlier. The Museum even commissioned a Community Quilt, created by local artist E West, as a response to the 50 stories brought together through the project.
Scott, a volunteer at the museum, pointed Cherwell to his favourite piece: ‘Frozen lightning’ from the Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology, which shows electrical discharges given off by radiation. Rachel, another volunteer at the museum, added that her item of choice detailed the development of Oxford marmalade, with the display on the Morris Car Factory a close second because “it shows that Oxford was a really good centre of manufacturing for quite a long time”. She went on to add: “This exhibition is a way of getting everybody involved…180 people have signed up to come this evening.”
The event was indeed busy. Live acoustic music from Mayura echoed throughout the galleries, bringing a sense of occasion to the night. Downstairs, there was drop-in zine making with Imperfect Bound, an Oxford-based queer zine collective, where we were encouraged to create a mini magazine of what Oxford meant to us. You could also make your own badges, and watch a short film screening of ‘10 Voices’ by the Shadowlight Artists, a collective of local creatives with learning disabilities.
By assembling the stories of the city into Our Oxford: 50 Years, 50 Stories, the Museum of Oxford not only memorialises its own past, but also that of the local community, creating a space that brings people together to celebrate their diverse experiences of life in our city.
Our Oxford: 50 Years, 50 Stories is open until the 3rd of January 2026. More details can be found here.
