The Ashmolean, the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology, has launched its new image library. Powered by Capture’s tailored platform for the Culture sector, the library boasts the museum’s world-famous collections, telling human stories across cultures and across time.

The Ashmolean opened as Britain’s first public museum, and the world’s first university museum, in 1683. Now, more than 12,000 object images are available for licensing, from ancient Egyptian mummies to Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

Declan McCarthy, Head of Publishing and Licensing at the Ashmolean, spoke of the recent launch:

“Our world famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time and this project is part of our overall commitment to making these collections more widely available.

We wanted to create new service that would allow an engaging and streamlined way for people to find, purchase and licence our beautiful high quality images from these unique collections.

We are very happy with Capture’s commitment to this project and hope that people will enjoy browsing our wonderful collections and imagery.”

The image library is powered by Capture Ltd, a leader in digital asset and image/footage library management, with a large footprint in the cultural and heritage sector. Specialising in media management, rights, licensing, metadata, finance and royalties, their configurable solutions and expert services help manage, protect, license and maximise the value of images, video, documents, and all other digital content.

Nick Caw, Chief Executive Officer at Capture, notes:

“We are delighted to support the Ashmolean with this project – in both building the initial business case and now bringing their plans to life.

We’ve jointly delivered some exciting advancements including more -bespoke reporting, a BACS invoicing workflow and implementing the recently launched Google licensable badge as part of the project.

The result – pairing the unique content of the Ashmolean with our market leading platform has allowed both opportunities to improve access to, and commercialisation of, a remarkable collection.”

Ashmolean Image Library:

Visit the image library and browse the thousands of unique images.

Banner Image Credit: WA1850.31 Paolo Uccello, ‘The Hunt in the Forest’ Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. September 2020