The British Museum

Iruni Kalupahana, JadeTimes Staff

I. Kalupahana is a Jadetimes news reporter covering Europe

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Image Source: Jonathan Reid 

The Bloomsbury, London based British Museum is the most renowned of its type globally dedicated to human history, art, and culture. Established in 1753 as the first national public museum, it continues to be a symbol of knowledge and heritage. It has a collection of approximately eight million works on permanent display and traces the history of human civilization from the earliest times until the present. In 2023, the museum had 5,820,860 visitors, the United Kingdom's most visited destination, according to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA).

The Origins and Foundation

The museum's history goes back to the vast collection of Sir Hans Sloane, an Anglo Irish physician and scientist. With the fear of losing his collection of 71,000 items such as manuscripts, books, antiquities, and natural history specimens, he bequeathed it to King George II for the nation. This led to the establishment of the British Museum by an Act of Parliament in 1753. The collection was further supplemented by the Cottonian Library and Harleian Library to form the core of what would become one of the world's largest museums.

Expansion and Growth

It first opened to the public in 1759 in Montagu House, purchased for £20,000. It expanded significantly over the centuries on the strength of British colonial discoveries. Two of its most famous objects, the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone, have fueled long standing ownership and repatriation disputes. In 1881, the Natural History Museum was split off from the museum, and in 1973, the British Library was split off from the museum and operated in the same building until 1997. Despite these splits, the British Museum has remained a fundamental institution for cultural and historical preservation.

Public Access and Influence

As a non departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, the British Museum continues to have free admission, except for specific exhibitions. The Reading Room of the museum has remained a hub of scholars, while its galleries provide an unrivaled window into the past. From the ancient artifacts to literary works like the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Beowulf manuscript, the British Museum remains a vital institution that fosters global understanding of history, art, and culture.