2. History
• The British Museum, in the Bloomsbury area of London, England, is a public institution dedicated to
human history, art and culture. Its permanent collection of some eight million works is among the
largest and most comprehensive in existence, having been widely collected during the era of the
British Empire. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. It was
the first public national museum in the world.
• The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the Irish physician
and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.It first opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of
the current building. Its expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of expanding
British colonisation and has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being
the Natural History Museum in 1881.
• In 1973, the British Library Act 1972 detached the library department from the British Museum, but
it continued to host the now separated British Library in the same Reading Room and building as
the museum until 1997. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and as with all national museums in the UK it
charges no admission fee, except for loan exhibitions.
3. Building
• The Greek Revival façade facing Great Russell Street is a characteristic building of
Sir Robert Smirke, with 44 columns in the Ionic order 45 ft (14 m) high, closely
based on those of the temple of Athena Polias at Priene in Asia Minor. The
pediment over the main entrance is decorated by sculptures by Sir Richard
Westmacott depicting The Progress of Civilisation, consisting of fifteen allegorical
figures, installed in 1852.
• The construction commenced around the courtyard with the East Wing (The King's
Library) in 1823–1828, followed by the North Wing in 1833–1838, which originally
housed among other galleries a reading room, now the Wellcome Gallery. Work
was also progressing on the northern half of the West Wing (The Egyptian
Sculpture Gallery) 1826–1831, with Montagu House demolished in 1842 to make
room for the final part of the West Wing, completed in 1846, and the South Wing
with its great colonnade, initiated in 1843 and completed in 1847, when the Front
Hall and Great Staircase were opened to the public. The museum is faced with
Portland stone, but the perimeter walls and other parts of the building were built
using Haytor granite from Dartmoor in South Devon, transported via the unique
Haytor Granite Tramway.
4. Great Court – Colossal quartzite
statue of Amenhotep III, c. 1350 BC
Room 4 - Limestone statue of a
husband and wife, 1300-1250 BC Room 63 - Gilded outer coffins from the
tomb of Henutmehyt, Thebes, Egypt, 19th
Dynasty, 1250 BC
Room 4 - Ancient Egyptian bronze
statue of a cat from the Late
Period, about 664–332 BC
Room 4 - Green siltstone head of a
Pharaoh, 26th-30th Dynasty, 600-340 BC
Great Court - Black siltstone
obelisk of King Nectanebo II of
Egypt, Thirtieth dynasty, about
350 BC
5. • The British Museum in London is one of the world's largest and
most important museums of human history and culture. It has
more than seven million objects from all continents. They illustrate
and document the story of human culture from its beginning to the
present. As with all other national museums and art galleries in
Britain, the Museum charges no admission fee.
• The British Museum set up in 1753 and opened in 1759. It was the
first museum in the world to be open to everyone. The museum
gradually grew over the next two hundred years. It has nearly six
million visitors a year and is the third most popular art museum in
the world.
