Where is British Museum?

Considered one of the world’s most famous Art Museums, British Museum is situated in the Bloomsbury district of the borough of Camden, London. The museum has millions of historically important archaeological and ethnographical objects from many different continents around the world.

Setup in 1753 and started in 1759, it was the first such museum that was open to everyone. While growing visitors with each passing year, the British Museum now even records more than six million visitors yearly. It is considered one of the third most popular art museums in the country. Being a national museum, there is no entry charge or fees and it is open to all the visitors from around the world.

History

The idea of establishing the British Museum was implemented because of a British Doctor and Scientist Hans Solane who hailed from Ulster and was based in London. He was very fond of collecting historical items and during his life, he had collected countless important items from around the world. Throughout his lifetime, Solane collected over 71,000 items of all kinds. The collection included over 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, and antiquities from countries like Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near, the Far East, and the Americas.

In 1753, before his death, he sold all his collection to the Parliament as he was not willing to split his collection between his relatives after his death. At that time, King George II was the ruler of the Parliament. Under his rule, the parliament decided to set up the British Museum, so that the collection could be kept in a place where people would be visible to people so that, they may learn something from it.

To find a suitable place for the museum, the British Government considered many possible places, including the building of Buckingham Palace, but eventually, they chose the Montagu House as the most suitable for the Museum. On 15 January 1759, the museum was ready to be open to the people. 

With passing time, the collection inside the museum grew larger and larger, so obviously, more space was required to hold the growing amount of objects. As a result, new buildings were founded.

In the year 1857, the Round Reading Room was opened in the British Museum, which is still a subject of attraction for many people. the feature that makes it unique and worth mentioning is that it had enough space to display millions of books at once. On the name of some discoveries, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, founded in 1857, by Charles Newton, and the Temple of Artemis, which was included in 1869, are famous. On these sites, many things were found, which are still the part of British Museum.

With the growing need for huge space, eventually, the government had to set up a new building in 1881, which was called the Natural History Museum.

The museum has several departments, and because of the huge collection of historical items, it was quite difficult to display them all together, as well as take care of them. So, they decided to split the collection into several different departments, so that it can be taken care of. Off course, by that time, some departments split or merged, and many changes happened. But there are some departments, which still have been the part of the Museum in one way or another. Following are some of the attractions of the British Museum:

Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan

The British Museum has the world’s largest collection of antiquities from Egypt. The department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan is one of the main departments of the British Museum, which holds a large collection of Ancient Egyptian Art from around the world. In the beginning, in the collection gathered by Han Sloane, there were around 160 objects, which were part of the Department of Ancient Egyptian art.

Later, after the battle with the French, the British Forces took many other ancient Egyptian artifacts from the French, which were later given to the British Museum in the year 1803. In these objects, Rosetta Stone was also included, which is still a subject of attraction for people around the world.

Department of Greece and Rome

In the same way, the department of Greece and Rome contains the largest collection of Ancient Greek and Roman objects from around the world. 

In the collection, the two from the Seven Wonders of Ancient time, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Temple of Artemis are the main attraction. There were also many pieces, which were taken from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. 

Off course, just like other departments, the main source of the collection is either the excavations or the acquisition of some private collections. It includes the objects bought from the collection of Sir. William Hamilton in the year 1772.

Department of the Middle East

As it can be known the name, In the Department of Middle East, there is the largest collection of Art from the regions of the Middle East. Especially, it contains the biggest collection of Mesopotamian art from around the world. It contains around 300,000 objects, which almost covers the period Neolithic until Now. 

The collection includes the objects from, Anatolia (Turkey), Levant (Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan), and The Assyrian and Sumerian collections, also, some of the collections were included from Central Asia along with Mesopotamia (Iraq).

Library

The British Museum was enriched with its unique historical Items and research holdings, to make it easily accessible for general citizens, the Parliament decided to start a Library service. In 1822, King George III himself donated the entire Royal library for the same purpose, which was the collection of around 65,000 volumes and 19,000 pamphlets.

There are some other features and objects that are the source of attraction for people from all around the world. Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles are one of these. 

Rosetta Stone

The museum gained popularity over time, and eventually, it started to concentrate more attention because of its historical objects and sculptures. For the same reason, In the year 1802, King George III decided to give out the Rosetta Stone to the museum, The Rosetta stone has its importance in history. Previously, the Rosetta stone was an important object for the French Historians, who were trying to understand the Hieroglyph language, which was written by the Egyptians in the Ancient times.

Elgin Marbles

In the year 1816, the British Museum acquired the Elgin Marbles from Thomas Bruce, who was the 7th Earl of Elgin. Elgin had taken those marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Some people are dissatisfied with the way Elgin took the marbles from Greece and compare it with the act of vandalism and looting.

So far, we’ve explored some of the key attributes of the British Museum that make it such an important place for historical means.