The British Museum

" Museum, British, Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury^?. Free. With the year 1879 this institution commenced a new era. For a century it was scarcely anything else than a storehouse of the treasures of the ancient world, an the curiosities of science, literature, and art; but today its invaluable accumulations are being brought out and adapted to the uses of age, and the public are invited to profit by the many beautiful lessons they can silently but surely teach. The British Museum is now open every day (except during the first week in February, May, and October, when the rooms are cleaned), and the baby in arms no longer excluded. On Monday and Saturday all the galleries are thrown open; on Tuesday and Thursday all except the natural history collections (then reserved for students); on Wednesday and Friday all except the antiquities on the upper floor and the rest of the department of Greek and Roman antiquities (set apart on those days for fine-art students). The hours of admission are from 10 (Saturday 12) all the year round, in January, February, November, December, till 4; March, April, September, October, till 5; and May to August till 6. On Monday and Saturday from May 8 till the middle of July till 8, and onwards till the end of August till 7. This variety in the hours of opening is occasioned by the duration of daylight, as the Museum is not artificially lighted [it became so in 1890]: experiments have, however, been tried in the reading-room with the electric light, which will be continued. Admission to the reading-room (for study and copying), to the department of prints and drawings (for the same), to the sculpture galleries (to draw from statues and busts), to the coin and medal room (for study), and to the zoological, fossil, mineral, and botanical collections (for examination of specimens), is granted on application to the principal librarian, supported by the recommendation of a householder or someone of known position. To save trouble, the recommendation of a person whose name can be found in the ordinary directories should be sent.

"The British Museum was first opened on the 15th January, 1759. Its principal components were then the Museum of Sir Hans Sloane, of Chelsea (bought for £20,000), the Cottonian library (presented by Sir J. Cotton, 1700), and the Harleian manuscripts (acquired for £10,000). By Act of Parliament, passed in 1753, the institution was vested in trustees for the nation, the £30,000 required for the Sloane and Harley collections, with a further sum to fund for salaries and expenses, was raised by a lottery sanctioned by the same Act. These tributaries to the stream of knowledge were deposited in Montagu House, a mansion standing in its own grounds, which are now occupied by the present building. The Museum may be roughly described as a square formed of four wings, the central space covered by a separate structure —the Reading-room. It is an imposing fabric of the Grecian Ionic order, designed by Sir Robert Smirke.

"Passing into the hall from the stately portico, you have on the right hand books and manuscripts: The GRENVILLE LIBRARY (rarest editions and finest examples of typography, with block books, valued at £54,000, bequeathed); the MANUSCRIPT DEPARTMENT (50,00 volumes, 45,000 charters and rolls, 7,000 seals, and 100 ancient papyri, including the Cotton, Harley, Lansdowne, Egerton, and additional collections); the MANUSCRIPT SALOON (autograph letters of eminent persons, illuminated manuscripts, rich bindings, and great seals); the KING’S LIBRARY (65,000 volumes, presented by George IV., remarkable productions of the printing-presses of Europe and Asia. In the same library an EXHIBITION OF DRAWINGS by Turner, Cox, Girtin, Cozens, Muller, and Canaletto, Henderson bequest, 1878 of engraved Portraits, historical Prints, and Playing-cards; and of the choicest Medals in the national cabinet, with electrotypes of the finest ancient Coins. On the left you have the ROMAN GALLERY (Busts of Emperors, Roman antiquities found in England); three GRAECO-ROMAN GALLERY (sculptures of the Greek school, found chiefly in Italy, including the Townley, £20,000, Payne-Knight, valued with other antiquities at £60,000, bequeathed, Farnese, Cyrene, and Priene marbles, including the Venus from Ostia, the Discobolos, Giustiniani Apollo, Clytie, Muses, Mercury, Satyrs; and in the basement, mosaics, tessellated pavements); the ARCHAIC GREEK ROOM (Harpy Tomb from Xanthus, seated figures from Branchidae, Etruscan sepulchral monument); the MAUSOLEUM ROOM (one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, the colossal chariot-tomb erected to Mausolos by his sister-wife Artemisia, discovered by C. T. Newton); the ELGIN ROOM (grandest remains of Greek sculpture, the Parthenon marbles and procession-frieze, works of Pheidias, greatest of Greek sculptors; purchased in 1816 of Lord Elgin for £35,000, now priceless; also colossal Lion from Cnidus; figured columns of the Temple of Diana of Ephesus, recovered by J. Turtle Wood, 1863-75); the HELLENIC ROOM (frieze, &c., of Temple of Apollo, erected at Phigalia by Iktinos excavated by C. R. Cockerell purchased for £19,000; the Diadumenos, athlete). ASSYRIAN GALLERIES: Sculptured slabs from Nineveh, now Kouyunjik, and Babylon, acquired during the Layard, Loftus, Geo. Smith Daily Telegraph, and Rassam explorations; illustrating most completely the daily life, religion warfare, art, literature, and customs of the Assyrians and Babylonians, and bearing strong testimony to the accuracy of portions of Biblical history. The clusters of Assyrian ivories, bronzes, seals, and glass are unrivalled, and the cuneiform tablets are a library in themselves; the Creation, Fall of Man, and Deluge tablets, Seals of Ilgi, B.C. 2050, Sennacherib, Darius, Assyrian accounts of Sennacherib’s expedition against Hezekiah, the Siege of Lachish. In Basement: Lion hunts by Assurbanipal III., Sardanapalus, very finely wrought, also processions, dogs, &c. EGYPTIAN GALLERIES: Colossal statues of divinities and Pharaohs, “the Vocal Memnon” sarcophagi, graveyard tablets, obelisks, fresco paintings, hieroglyphics, the Rosetta stone, key to Egyptian language; from Memphis, Abydos, Thebes, Karnak, Luxor; dating from the time of Abraham to the Ptolemies, in beautiful state of preservation. On Staircase : Papyri, the pictured Ritual of the Dead. Most of the larger sculptures were surrendered to the English on the capitulation of Alexandria in 1801. Antiquities from Cyprus: small statues, busts, and miscellaneous ornaments. Before you in the hall is the new LYCIAN ROOM: Sculptures from Lycia, obtained by Sir C. Fellows, lofty tombs, friezes, Statues of Nereids, graceful and expressive of motion. On the floor above are the galleries containing the smaller objects of antiquity: Egyptian mummies, embalmed animals, coffins, sepulchral ornaments, representations of divinities in gold, silver, and porcelain; furniture, ivories, bronzes, vases, dresses, weapons, and tools. The GLASS COLLECTIONS: Slade and Temple cabinets; Egyptian, Phoenician, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Venetian, French, German, Dutch, and Spanish examples; “Christian glass.” WITT COLLECTION: illustrating the bath of the ancients; Roman ware; Cyprus pottery VASE ROOMS : Painted fictile vases, Hamilton, Canino, Payne, Knight, and other collections, from tombs, principally Etruscan and Greek; illustrating by paintings the divine and heroic legends of the Greeks ; mural paintings, terra-cotta statuettes, drinking. cups, toys, &c. BRONZE ROOM: Greek, Etruscan and Roman bronzes, deities, heroes, mirrors, candelabra, lamps, vases; head of Artemis (finest period of Greek art), Venus, Bacchus, Apollo, Hercules, seated philosopher, Meleager, Mercury. BRITISH AND MEDIEVAL ROOM: British antiquities anterior to the Roman-invasion, Roman antiquities found in Britain; Anglo-Saxon objects, flint implements, pottery, cave. remains, weapons; early Christian lamps, crosses, medieval carvings in ivory, bells, clockwork, enamels, pottery, and majolica. The Franks’ Collection, descriptive of the Keramic art of the far East, presented to the nation by Mr. A. W. Franks, and valued at £6,000, will be removed from the Bethnal Green Museum to this department when the natural history collections shall have been transferred to South Kensington. ETHNOGRAPHICAL ROOM: Idols, fetishes, dresses, ornaments, implements, and weapons of the savage races of the world, including the articles gathered by Captain Cook in the South Sea Islands. PREHISTORIC ROOM: The Christy Collection, bequeathed in 1866 will be shortly brought from 103, Victoria-street; the room is now occupied by the Meyrick armour, carvings in ivory and wood, enamels, &c., presented in 1878; and the Henderson Collection, bequeathed in the same year, comprising oriental arms, metal work, Persian, Rhodian and Damascus pottery, majolica and glass. ORNAMENT AND GEM ROOM: Payne-Knight Strozzi (Blacas) (purchased in 1866 with other antiquities for £40,000), Castellani, and other collections; the Portland Vase ancient gold, silver, and amber ornaments; fine illustrations of the goldsmith’s art among the Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans, intaglios and cameos unsurpassed for delicacy and beauty; Byzantine, Teutonic; Anglo-Saxon and later Ornaments; Keltic gold breast-plate and rings. Beyond the new Lycian room is the READING ROOM: Tickets to view are given by the messenger in the hall; circular structure; original suggestion of Thomas Watts, improved by A. (Sir A.) Panizzi, carried out by Mr. Sidney Smirke; dome 140 feet in diameter, height 106 feet; 60,000 books in the three tiers inside; space for 1,500,000 inside and out; here in the basement are also the Map and Chart Departments, newspaper and music libraries. There are 1,300,000 volumes in the department of printed books at the present date. The Reading-room is open daily from nine November to February till four, March, September, and October till five, rest of year till six. Beyond, in the north wing, is the old library, in a part of which, once the Reading-room, T. Carlyle and Lord Macaulay worked; it is now the cataloguing department of the assistants and copyists. It may be noted here that, under the new regulations, tickets for the reading-room are not renewed; once on the register always a reader and there is no need to show the ticket if the reader is known to the doorkeeper. Persons under twenty-one are not admitted, except in very special cases indeed. The Department of PRINTS AND DRAWINGS: Entrance on staircase at the top of the Egyptian gallery the richest assemblage of etchings and engravings in Europe ; open to students every day in the week at ten ; closes at four all the year round except from the beginning of April to the end of July, when it is shut at five. Contains the collections of Sloane (including the Albrecht Dürer drawings), Payne-Knight, Cracherode, Cunningham, early Italian and German prints; Lawrence drawings; Hamilton, Townley, Moll, Sheepshanks, Rembrandt etchings, Harding, Morghen, Gell, Craven, Ed. Hawkins (caricatures), Slade, and Henderson. The Department of COINS AND MEDALS has the choicest and most extensive numismatic cabinets in the world, scientifically arranged; and includes the Roberts, Payne-Knight, Marsden, Temple, De Salis, Wigan, Blacas, Woodhouse, and Bank of England cabinets. Lastly are the Natural History collections, which will be shortly placed in the elegant terra-cotta building in the Cromwell-road, near the South Kensington Museum, designed by Mr. Alfred Waterhouse. It will be sufficient to say that they occupy the remainder of the upper floor of the British Museum; that the ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS comprise, in large part, the specimens brought together by Sir Hans Sloane, mammals, &c.; Colonel Montagu, ornithology; Hardwicke, Indian animals; Hodgson, mammals and birds; Yarrell, fishes; Ross and Be1cher, antarctic specimens; Stephens, entomology, 88,000 specimens; Bowring, entomology; Reeves, vertebrate animals from China; Clark, coleoptera; Hugh Cuming, shells, the largest collection ever formed, acquired in 1866; A. R. Wallace, birds; Dr. Bowerbank, sponges; and the specimens collected during the Transit of Venus Expedition (1875), and the recent Arctic exploration. The GEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT comprises fossil plants, fishes, reptiles (South African, &c.), saurians, wingless birds, gigantic eggs, sponges, corals, shells, insects, the mammoth, megatherium, pigmy elephant, human remains, principally formed from the collections of Dr. Solander, Hawkins, Mantell, Dr. Croizet, Bain, &c., and extensive purchases. The MINERAL DEPARTMENT includes a splendid collection of meteorites, aerolites, siderolites, portions of other planets, and aerial formations; the Melbourne meteorite, three and a half tons ; the collections of Greville, Greg, Kokscharoff, &c. a well-arranged series of minerals, including diamonds, gold nuggets, crystals, and gems of every variety and degree of purity and splendour. In the BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT are flowerless plants, fungi, sea-weeds, lichens, mosses, ferns, flowering plants, grasses and sedges, palms, cycads, conifers, parasitical plants, fruits and stems, fossil plants, polished sections of woods, cones, &c., from the herbaria of Sir Hans Sloane, 1753, Sir Joseph Banks, 1827, Robert Brown, Rev. R. Blight, and others. Admission to study the herbarium and mounted specimens, daily ten till four, is granted on application to the principal librarian. The PORTRAITS, until lately hung in the Zoological Gallery, have been for the most part handed over to the National Portrait Gallery. NEAREST Railway Stations, Gower-st (Metrop.) and Temple (Dist.); Omnibus Routes, Oxford-st, Tottenham-court-road, and Euston-road. Cab Ranks, Bury-st and Southampton-row."

• Charles Dickens, Jr., Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879 (borrowed from The Victorian Dictionary).

The British Museum website has extensive historical information.

The Victorian Dictionary has a number of interesting contemporary remarks.

The British Museum website has floor plans; things have not changed that much, apart from the addition of the King Edward VII galleries.

Muirhead's London (see LondonGuidesAndMaps) includes fold-out maps of the entire museum and extensive commentary.

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 29 Dec 2004

This page is linked to by: AgnesMacNeil, BritishMuseum, DictionaryB, EducationAndUniversities, HarryMcDonald, MilesStafford, NicholasHawksmoor, PlaceDirectoryB, RoderickLancaster,