British Museum

The British Museum is one of the world's foremost museums. Its collection consists of more than 7 million objects and is visited by more than 4.5 million people a year.

History

The history of the British Museum began when Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) left his collection of more than 71,000 objects to King George for the nation in return for payment of £20,000 to his heirs. A group of Trustees was charged with supervising the collection. The King did not show much interest first but he was persuaded to accept it and an Act of Parliament established the British Museum in 1753.

The Cotton collection of manuscripts, which had been given to the nation in 1700, was added to the collection and the Harleian collection of manuscripts was purchased, too.

The British Museum opened to the public on 15 January, 1759. Since its collection belonged to the nation, free admission has been granted from the beginning.

Antiquities

The purchase of Sir William Hamilton's collection of Greek vases and other classical objects in 1772 meant the beginning of numerous other acquisitions of antiquities, including the Rosetta Stone, a basalt tablet with inscriptions in Greek and in Egyptian hieroglyphic and demotic scripts on it, which provided the key to the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script.

Departments

Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas
Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan
Department of Asia
Department of Coins and Medals
Department of Conservation, Documentation and Science
Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities
Department of the Middle East
Department of Portable Antiquities and Treasure
Department of Prehistory and Europe
Department of Prints and Drawings

External links

The British Museum
British Museum Images