Companions' Day in Oxford, July 2026

On Friday 3rd July 2026, the Guild hosted a day for Companions which included visits to see works by Turner and Ruskin in the Print Room at the Ashmolean Museum, made possible at the invitation of Companion Colin Harrison, and a tour of the Museum of Natural History with Prof John Holmes. Below you will find a selection of images taken by attendees during the day.

We are enormously grateful to Colin Harrison and John Holmes for the time they gave to share their expertise with us during our visit to Oxford. Many attendees have commented on what a privilege it was to have access to the Print Room at the Ashmolean to see up close the astonishing range of works by Turner and Ruskin (and Millais) selected by Colin, and then to have a private tour of the Museum of Natural History with John, including access to rooms not normally on view to visitors.

You can read more about the Ruskin collections at the Ashmolean here, and you can pre-book to visit the Print Room (at no cost) here. John Holmes has written two books about the Museum of Natural History, which you can find out more about here (a Guild publication) and here (a museum publication).

These photographs from the day were taken by Mark Cleaver, Kate Mason, Ingrid Cleaver and Simon Seligman