Editing British Museum (section)

==History==

=== Sir Hans Sloane ===
[[File:Sir Hans Sloane, an engraving from a portrait by T. Murray.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Hans Sloane|Sir Hans Sloane]]]]

Although today principally a museum of cultural art objects and [[Ancient history|antiquities]], the British Museum was founded as a "universal museum". Its foundations lie in the will of the [[Anglo-Irish]] [[physician]] and [[Natural history|naturalist]] [[Hans Sloane|Sir Hans Sloane]] (1660–1753), a London-based doctor and scientist from [[Ulster]]. During the course of his lifetime, and particularly after he married the widow of a wealthy Jamaican planter,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/building_britain_gallery_05.shtml|title=BBC – History – British History in depth: Slavery and the Building of Britain|website=www.bbc.co.uk|access-date=12 November 2019|archive-date=5 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205004223/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/building_britain_gallery_05.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> Sloane gathered a large [[cabinet of curiosities|collection of curiosities]], and not wishing to see his collection broken up after death, he bequeathed it to [[George II of Great Britain|King George II]], for the nation, for a sum of £20,000 ({{inflation|UK|20000|1753|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) to be paid to his heirs by Parliament<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.fathom.com/course/21701728/session1.html| title=Creating a Great Museum: Early Collectors and The British Museum| publisher=Fathom| access-date=4 July 2010| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100102202555/http://www.fathom.com/course/21701728/session1.html| archive-date=2 January 2010| df=dmy-all}}</ref>—intentionally far less than the estimated value of the artefacts, contemporarily estimated at £50,000 ({{inflation|UK|50000|1753|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) or more according to some sources, and up to £80,000 ({{inflation|UK|80000|1753|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) or more by others.<ref name="sloaneletters.com2">{{Cite web |title=Introducing Sir Hans Sloane – the Sloane Letters Project |url=http://sloaneletters.com/about-sir-hans-sloane/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Sir Hans Sloane's Will of 1739 – The Sloane Letters Project |url=http://sloaneletters.com/will-sloane/ |website=sloaneletters.com}}</ref>

At that time, Sloane's collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/history/general_history.aspx| title=General history| work=British Museum| date=14 June 2010| access-date=4 July 2010| archive-date=12 April 2012| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120412162528/http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/history/general_history.aspx| url-status=live}}</ref> including some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337 volumes of dried plants, [[Old master print|prints]] and drawings including those by [[Albrecht Dürer]] and antiquities from [[Kingdom of Kush|Sudan]], [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], the [[Ancient Near East|Ancient Near]] and [[Far East]] and the [[History of the Americas|Americas]].<ref>[[Gavin de Beer|de Beer, Gavin R.]] (1953). ''Sir Hans Sloane and the British Museum''. London.</ref>

===Foundation (1753)===
On 7 June 1753, [[George II of Great Britain and Ireland|King George II]] gave his [[royal assent]] to the [[Act of Parliament]] which established the British Museum.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|1=By the Act of Parliament it received a name – the British Museum. The origin of the name is not known; the word 'British' had some resonance nationally at this period, so soon after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745; it must be assumed that the museum was christened in this light.<ref>The question of the use of the term 'British' at this period has recently received some attention, e.g. Colley (1992), 85ff. There never has been a serious attempt to change the museum's name.</ref>}} The [[British Museum Act 1753]] also added two other libraries to the Sloane collection, namely the [[Cotton library|Cottonian Library]], assembled by [[Robert Bruce Cotton|Sir Robert Cotton]], dating back to [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] times, and the [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer|Harleian Library]], the collection of the [[Earl of Oxford|Earls of Oxford]]. They were joined in 1757 by the "Old Royal Library", now the [[Royal manuscripts, British Library|Royal manuscripts]], assembled by various [[British monarchy|British monarchs]]. Together these four "foundation collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the [[British Library]]<ref>Letter to Charles Long (1823), BMCE115/3,10. Scrapbooks and illustrations of the Museum. Wilson, David M. (2002). ''The British Museum: A History''. London: The British Museum Press, p. 346.</ref> including the [[Lindisfarne Gospels]] and the sole surviving manuscript of ''[[Beowulf]]''.<ref group="lower-alpha">The estimated footage of the various libraries as reported to the trustees has been summarised by Harris (1998), 3,6: Sloane 4,600, Harley 1,700, Cotton 384, Edwards 576, The Royal Library 1,890.</ref>

[[File:The North Prospect of Mountague House JamesSimonc1715.jpg|thumb|right|[[Montagu House, Bloomsbury|Montagu House]], {{circa|1715}}]]

The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.bmimages.com/preview.asp?image=00032676001&imagex=90&searchnum=0001| title=The British Museum Images| publisher=Bmimages| access-date=4 July 2010| archive-date=11 May 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511191549/http://www.bmimages.com/preview.asp?image=00032676001&imagex=90&searchnum=0001| url-status=live}}</ref> The addition of the [[Robert Bruce Cotton|Cotton]] and [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer|Harley manuscripts]] introduced a literary and [[antiquarian]] element, and meant that the British Museum now became both [[National Museum]] and library.<ref name="world and its people">{{cite book| last=Dunton| first=Larkin|title=The World and Its People| url=https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog| publisher=Silver, Burdett|year=1896|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog/page/n46 38]}}</ref>

===Cabinet of curiosities (1753–1778)===
[[File:Rosetta Stone International Congress of Orientalists ILN 1874.jpg|thumb|The [[Rosetta Stone]] on display in the British Museum in 1874]]
The body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, [[Montagu House, Bloomsbury|Montagu House]], as a location for the museum, which it bought from the [[Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu|Montagu family]] for £20,000. The trustees rejected Buckingham House, which was later converted into the present day [[Buckingham Palace]], on the grounds of cost and the unsuitability of its location.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=David, M.|year=2002|title=The British Museum: A History|location=London|publisher=The British Museum Press|pages=25}}</ref><ref group="lower-alpha">This was perhaps rather unfortunate as the title to the house was complicated by the fact that part of the building had been erected on leasehold property (the Crown lease of which ran out in 1771); perhaps that is why [[George III]] paid such a modest price (nominally £28,000) for what was to become Buckingham Palace. See [[Howard Colvin]] ''et al.'' (1976), 134.</ref>

With the acquisition of Montagu House, the first exhibition galleries and [[Library|reading room]] for scholars opened on 15 January 1759.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The British Museum opened on January 15th, 1759|url=http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/british-museum-opened|date=January 2009|volume=59|issue=1|magazine=[[History Today]]|last=Cavendish|first=Richard|access-date=15 January 2016|archive-date=17 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117213759/http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/british-museum-opened|url-status=live}}</ref> At this time, the largest parts of collection were the library, which took up the majority of the rooms on the ground floor and the natural history objects, which took up an entire wing on the first floor . In 1763, the trustees of the British Museum, under the influence of [[Peter Collinson (botanist)|Peter Collinson]] and [[William Watson (scientist)|William Watson]], employed the former student of [[Carl Linnaeus]], [[Daniel Solander]], to reclassify the natural history collection according to the [[Linnaean taxonomy|Linnaean system]], thereby making the museum a public centre of learning accessible to the full range of European natural historians.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Rose|first1=ED|title=Specimens, slips and systems: Daniel Solander and the classification of nature at the world's first public museum, 1753–1768.|journal=British Journal for the History of Science|volume=51|issue=2|date=15 April 2018|pages=205–237|doi=10.1017/S0007087418000249|pmid=29655387|url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/275144/1/Edwin%20D.%20Rose%2c%20Specimens%2c%20Slips%20and%20Systems.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/275144/1/Edwin%20D.%20Rose%2c%20Specimens%2c%20Slips%20and%20Systems.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1823, King George IV gave the [[King's Library]] assembled by George III,<ref>{{cite web|title=Collection Guides – King's Library|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/the-kings-library|access-date=1 June 2020|archive-date=7 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807055224/https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/the-kings-library|url-status=live}}</ref> and Parliament gave the right to a copy of every book published in the country, thereby ensuring that the museum's library would expand indefinitely. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several further gifts, including the [[Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts]] and [[David Garrick]]'s library of 1,000 printed plays. The predominance of natural history, books and manuscripts began to lessen when in 1772 the museum acquired for £8,410 its first significant antiquities in [[William Hamilton (diplomat)|Sir William Hamilton]]'s "first" collection of [[Pottery of ancient Greece|Greek vases]].<ref name="Hoock2010">{{cite book|last1=Hoock|first1=Holger|title=Empires of the Imagination: Politics, War and the Arts in the British World, 1750–1850|date=2010|publisher=Profile Books|isbn=9781861978592|page=207|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tuW554NdWk8C&q=%22william+hamilton%22%22british+museum%22+greek+vases&pg=PA207|access-date=21 July 2016|archive-date=15 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315094930/https://books.google.com/books?id=tuW554NdWk8C&q=%22william+hamilton%22%22british+museum%22+greek+vases&pg=PA207|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Indolence and energy (1778–1800)===
[[File:Entrance ticket to the British Museum, London March 3, 1790.jpg|thumb|left|Entrance ticket to the British Museum, London 3 March 1790]]
From 1778, a display of objects from the [[Pacific Ocean|South Sea]]s brought back from the round-the-world voyages of Captain [[James Cook]] and the travels of other explorers fascinated visitors with a glimpse of previously unknown lands. The bequest of a collection of books, [[engraved gem]]s, coins, prints and drawings by [[Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode]] in 1800 did much to raise the museum's reputation; but Montagu House became increasingly crowded and decrepit and it was apparent that it would be unable to cope with further expansion.<ref>BMCE1/5, 1175 (13 May 1820). Minutes of General Meeting of the Trustees, 1754–63. Wilson, David M. (2002). ''The British Museum: A History'', p. 78.</ref>

The museum's first notable addition towards its collection of antiquities, since its foundation, was by Sir [[William Hamilton (diplomat)|William Hamilton]] (1730–1803), British Ambassador to [[Naples]], who sold his collection of Greek and Roman artefacts to the museum in 1784 together with a number of other antiquities and natural history specimens. A list of donations to the museum, dated 31 January 1784, refers to the Hamilton bequest of a "Colossal Foot of an [[Apollo]] in Marble". It was one of two antiquities of Hamilton's collection drawn for him by Francesco Progenie, a pupil of [[Pietro Fabris]], who also contributed a number of drawings of Mount Vesuvius sent by Hamilton to the [[Royal Society]] in London.

===Growth and change (1800–1825)===

[[File:P8282318.1.JPG|thumb|right|Left to Right: [[Montagu House, Bloomsbury|Montagu House]], Townley Gallery and [[Robert Smirke (architect)|Sir Robert Smirke]]'s west wing under construction, July 1828]]
[[File:Mauso03.JPG|thumb|The [[Mausoleum at Halicarnassus|Mausoleum of Halicarnassus]] Room, 1920s]]

In the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. After the defeat of the [[Campaigns of 1799 in the French Revolutionary Wars|French campaign]] in the [[Battle of the Nile]], in 1801, the British Museum acquired more Egyptian sculptures and in 1802 [[George III of the United Kingdom|King George III]] presented the [[Rosetta Stone]] – key to the deciphering of hieroglyphs.<ref>''Wondrous Curiosities – Ancient Egypt at the British Museum'', pp. 66–72 (Stephanie Moser, 2006, {{ISBN|0-226-54209-2}})</ref> Gifts and purchases from [[Henry Salt (Egyptologist)|Henry Salt]], British consul general in Egypt, beginning with the [[Younger Memnon|Colossal bust of Ramesses II]] in 1818, laid the foundations of the collection of Egyptian Monumental Sculpture.<ref>''The Story of the British Museum'', p. 24 (Marjorie Caygill, 2003, {{ISBN|0-7141-2772-8}})</ref> Many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the [[Charles Towneley|Charles Towneley collection]], much of it Roman sculpture, in 1805. In 1806, [[Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin]], ambassador to the [[Ottoman Empire]] from 1799 to 1803 removed the large collection of marble sculptures from the [[Parthenon]], on the [[Acropolis of Athens|Acropolis]] in Athens and transferred them to the UK. In 1816 these masterpieces of western art were acquired by the British Museum by Act of Parliament and deposited in the museum thereafter.<ref>The British Museum – The Elgin Marbles, p. 85 (B.F.Cook, 2005, {{ISBN|0-7141-2134-7}}</ref> The collections were supplemented by the [[Bassae]] frieze from [[Phigalia|Phigaleia]], Greece in 1815. The Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of [[Assyria]]n and [[Babylonia]]n antiquities from Mary Mackintosh Rich, the widow of Assyriologist [[Claudius James Rich]].<ref>The British Museum – Assyrian Sculpture, pp. 6–7 (Julian Reade, 2004, {{ISBN|0-7141-2141-X}})</ref>

In 1802 a buildings committee was set up to plan for expansion of the museum, and further highlighted by the donation in 1822 of the [[King's Library]], personal library of King George III's, comprising 65,000 volumes, 19,000 [[pamphlet]]s, maps, charts and [[Topographic map|topographical drawings]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/prbooks/georgeiiicoll/george3kingslibrary.html |title=King's Library |publisher=Bl |access-date=22 October 2011 |archive-date=13 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813040241/http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/prbooks/georgeiiicoll/george3kingslibrary.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Neoclassical architecture|neoclassical]] architect, [[Robert Smirke (architect)|Sir Robert Smirke]], was asked to draw up plans for an eastern extension to the museum "...&nbsp;for the reception of the [[Royal Library, Windsor|Royal Library]], and a Picture Gallery over it ..."<ref>Wilson, David, M. (2002). ''The British Museum: A History''. London: The British Museum Press, p. 79</ref> and put forward plans for today's quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old [[Montagu House, Bloomsbury|Montagu House]] was demolished and work on the [[King's Library]] Gallery began in 1823. The extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. However, following the founding of the [[National Gallery, London|National Gallery]], London in 1824,<ref group="lower-alpha">Understanding of the foundation of the [[National Gallery, London|National Gallery]] is complicated by the fact that there is no documented history of the institution. At first the National Gallery functioned effectively as part of the British Museum, to which the [[trustee]]s transferred most of their most important pictures (ex. portraits). Full control was handed over to the National Gallery in 1868, after the [[National Gallery Act 1856]] established the gallery as an independent body.</ref> the proposed Picture Gallery was no longer needed, and the space on the upper floor was given over to the [[Natural history]] collections.<ref>Caygill, Marjorie (2003). ''The Story of the British Museum'', p. 25. {{ISBN|0-7141-2772-8}})</ref>

The first Synopsis of the British Museum was published in 1808. This described the contents of the museum, and the display of objects room by room, and updated editions were published every few years.

===The largest building site in Europe (1825–1850)===
[[File:Image-The Grenville Library (1875).jpg|thumb|right|The [[Thomas Grenville|Grenville]] Library, 1875]]
As [[Robert Smirke (architect)|Sir Robert Smirke]]'s grand [[Neoclassical architecture|neo-classical]] building gradually arose, the museum became a construction site. The [[King's Library]], on the ground floor of the East Wing, was handed over in 1827, and was described as one of the finest rooms in London. Although it was not fully open to the general public until 1857, special openings were arranged during [[The Great Exhibition]] of 1851.

In 1840, the museum became involved in its first overseas [[excavation (archeology)|excavation]]s, [[Charles Fellows]]'s expedition to [[Xanthos]], in [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]], whence came remains of the tombs of the rulers of ancient [[Lycia]], among them the [[Nereid Monument|Nereid]] and [[Tomb of Payava|Payava]] monuments. In 1857, [[Charles Thomas Newton|Charles Newton]] was to discover the 4th-century BC [[Mausoleum of Maussollos|Mausoleum of Halikarnassos]], one of the [[Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]]. In the 1840s and 1850s the museum supported excavations in [[Assyria]] by [[Austen Henry Layard|A.H. Layard]] and others at sites such as [[Nimrud]] and [[Nineveh]]. Of particular interest to curators was the eventual discovery of [[Ashurbanipal]]'s great library of [[Cuneiform script|cuneiform]] [[Clay tablet|tablets]], which helped to make the museum a focus for [[Assyriology|Assyrian studies]].<ref>Reade, Julian (2004). ''Assyrian Sculpture''. London: The British Museum Press, p. 16.</ref>

[[Thomas Grenville|Sir Thomas Grenville]] (1755–1846), a trustee of the British Museum from 1830, assembled a library of 20,240 volumes, which he left to the museum in his will. The books arrived in January 1847 in twenty-one horse-drawn vans. The only vacant space for this large library was a room originally intended for manuscripts, between the Front Entrance Hall and the Manuscript Saloon. The books remained here until the British Library moved to [[St Pancras, London|St Pancras]] in 1998.

===Collecting from the wider world (1850–1875)===
The opening of the forecourt in 1852 marked the completion of [[Robert Smirke (architect)|Robert Smirke]]'s 1823 plan, but already adjustments were having to be made to cope with the unforeseen growth of the collections. Infill galleries were constructed for [[Assyria]]n sculptures and [[Sydney Smirke]]'s [[British Museum Reading Room|Round Reading Room]], with space for a million books, opened in 1857. Because of continued pressure on space the decision was taken to move natural history to a new building in [[South Kensington]], which would later become the [[Natural History Museum, London|British Museum of Natural History]].

Roughly contemporary with the construction of the new building was the career of a man sometimes called the "second founder" of the British Museum, the Italian librarian [[Anthony Panizzi]]. Under his supervision, the British Museum Library (now part of the [[British Library]]) quintupled in size and became a well-organised institution worthy of being called a national library, the largest library in the world after the [[National Library of Paris]].<ref name="world and its people"/> The [[Quadrangle (architecture)|quadrangle]] at the centre of Smirke's design proved to be a waste of valuable space and was filled at Panizzi's request by a circular Reading Room of cast iron, designed by Smirke's brother, Sydney Smirke.<ref>{{cite web|author=Dickens Charles Jr.|author-link=Charles Dickens Jr.|year=1879|title=Museum, British|work=[[Dickens's Dictionary of London]]|url=http://www.victorianlondon.org/dickens/dickens-mus.htm|access-date=22 August 2007|quote=Beyond the new Lycian room is the READING ROOM: [...]; circular structure; original suggestion of Thomas Watts, improved by A. (Sir A.) Panizzi, carried out by Mr. Sidney Smirke; [...]|archive-date=27 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927203001/http://www.victorianlondon.org/dickens/dickens-mus.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Until the mid-19th century, the museum's collections were relatively circumscribed but, in 1851, with the appointment to the staff of [[Augustus Wollaston Franks]] to curate the collections, the museum began for the first time to collect British and European medieval antiquities, [[prehistory]], branching out into Asia and diversifying its holdings of [[ethnography]]. A real coup for the museum was the purchase in 1867, over French objections, of the [[Louis, Duke of Blacas|Duke of Blacas]]'s wide-ranging and valuable collection of antiquities. Overseas excavations continued and [[John Turtle Wood]] discovered the remains of the 4th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC [[Temple of Artemis]] at [[Ephesus|Ephesos]], another [[Seven Wonders of the Ancient World|Wonder of the Ancient World]].<ref>South from Ephesus – An Escape From The Tyranny of Western Art, pp. 33–34,(Brian Sewell, 2002, {{ISBN|1-903933-16-1}})</ref>

===Scholarship and legacies (1875–1900)===
The natural history collections were an integral part of the British Museum until their removal to the new British Museum of Natural History in 1887, nowadays the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] in [[South Kensington]]. With the departure and the completion of the new White Wing (fronting Montague Street) in 1884, more space was available for antiquities and [[ethnography]] and the library could further expand. This was a time of innovation as electric lighting was introduced in the Reading Room and exhibition galleries.<ref>{{cite news| title=The Electric Light in the British Museum| work=[[The New York Times]]| date=18 December 1879| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/12/18/80703696.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/12/18/80703696.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live| access-date=15 January 2016}}</ref>

The [[William Burges]] collection of [[armoury]] was bequeathed to the museum in 1881. In 1882, the museum was involved in the establishment of the independent [[Egypt Exploration Fund]] (now Society) the first British body to carry out research in Egypt. A bequest from Miss Emma Turner in 1892 financed excavations in Cyprus. In 1897 the death of the great collector and curator, [[Augustus Wollaston Franks|A. W. Franks]], was followed by an immense bequest of 3,300 [[Ring (finger)|finger rings]], 153 drinking vessels, 512 pieces of continental porcelain, 1,500 [[netsuke]], 850 [[inro]], over 30,000 [[bookplates]] and miscellaneous items of jewellery and plate, among them the [[Oxus Treasure]].<ref>Caygill, Marjorie (2006). ''The British Museum: 250 Years''. London: The British Museum Press, p. 5.</ref>

In 1898 [[Ferdinand James von Rothschild|Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild]] bequeathed the [[Waddesdon Bequest]], the glittering contents from his New Smoking Room at [[Waddesdon Manor]]. This consisted of almost 300 pieces of ''[[objets d'art]] et de vertu'' which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass and [[maiolica]], among them the [[Holy Thorn Reliquary]], probably created in the 1390s in Paris for [[John, Duke of Berry]]. The collection was in the tradition of a ''[[Schatzkammer]]'' such as those formed by the [[Renaissance]] princes of Europe.<ref name="rothschild">{{cite web| title=Creating a Great Museum: Early Collectors and The British Museum| first=Marjorie| last=Caygill| publisher=Fathom| url=http://www.fathom.com/course/21701728/session4.html| access-date=13 November 2007| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006091742/http://www.fathom.com/course/21701728/session4.html| archive-date=6 October 2007| df=dmy-all}}</ref> Baron Ferdinand's will was most specific, and failure to observe the terms would make it void, the collection should be
{{blockquote|placed in a special room to be called the Waddesdon Bequest Room separate and apart from the other contents of the Museum and thenceforth for ever thereafter, keep the same in such room or in some other room to be substituted for it.<ref name="rothschild"/>}} These terms are still observed, and the collection occupies room 2a.

===New century, new building (1900–1925)===
[[File:England; London - The British Museum, Archive King Edward VII's Galleries ~ North Wing (1914).2.jpg|thumb|Opening of The North Wing, [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|King Edward VII's]] Galleries, 1914]]
[[File:Woolley holding the hardened plaster mold of a lyre.jpg|thumb|Sir [[Leonard Woolley]] holding an excavated plaster cast of the [[Sumer]]ian [[Queen's Lyre]], 1922.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Treasures from the royal tombs of Ur |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology |year=1998 |editor-last=Zettler |editor-first=Richard L. |pages=31 |editor-last2=Horne |editor-first2=Lee}}</ref>]]
By the last years of the 19th century, The British Museum's collections had increased to the extent that its building was no longer large enough. In 1895 the trustees purchased the 69 houses surrounding the museum with the intention of demolishing them and building around the west, north and east sides of the museum. The first stage was the construction of the northern wing beginning 1906.

All the while, the collections kept growing. [[Emil Torday]] collected in Central Africa, [[Marc Aurel Stein|Aurel Stein]] in Central Asia, [[David George Hogarth|D. G. Hogarth]], [[Leonard Woolley]] and [[T. E. Lawrence]] excavated at [[Carchemish]]. Around this time, the American collector and philanthropist [[J. Pierpont Morgan]] donated a substantial number of objects to the museum,<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?people=101677&peoA=101677-3-9| title=British Museum – Collection search: You searched for| work=British Museum| access-date=22 July 2016| archive-date=5 February 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205075813/http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?people=101677&peoA=101677-3-9| url-status=live}}</ref> including [[William Greenwell]]'s collection of prehistoric artefacts from across Europe which he had purchased for £10,000 in 1908. Morgan had also acquired a major part of Sir [[John Evans (archaeologist)|John Evans]]'s coin collection, which was later sold to the museum by his son [[J. P. Morgan Jr.]] in 1915. In 1918, because of the threat of wartime bombing, some objects were evacuated via the [[London Post Office Railway]] to Holborn, the [[National Library of Wales|National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth)]] and a country house near [[Malvern, Worcestershire|Malvern]]. On the return of antiquities from wartime storage in 1919 some objects were found to have deteriorated. A conservation laboratory was set up in May 1920 and became a permanent department in 1931. It is today the oldest in continuous existence.<ref>Permanent establishment of the Research Laboratory (now the oldest such establishment in continuous existence) {{cite web| url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/departments/conservation_and_scientific/history.aspx| title=History| work=British Museum| access-date=22 July 2016| archive-date=28 November 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128131604/http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/departments/conservation_and_scientific/history.aspx| url-status=live}}</ref> In 1923, the British Museum welcomed over one million visitors.

===Disruption and reconstruction (1925–1950)===
New [[mezzanine]] floors were constructed and book stacks rebuilt in an attempt to cope with the flood of books. In 1931, the art dealer [[Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen of Millbank|Sir Joseph Duveen]] offered funds to build a gallery for the [[Elgin Marbles|Parthenon sculptures]]. Designed by the American architect [[John Russell Pope]], it was completed in 1938. The appearance of the exhibition galleries began to change as dark Victorian reds gave way to modern pastel shades.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|1=Ashmole, the Keeper of the Greek and Roman Antiquities appreciated the original top-lighting of these galleries and removed the Victorian colour scheme, commenting: <blockquote>The old Elgin Gallery was painted a deep terracotta red, which, though in some ways satisfactory, diminished its apparent size, and was apt to produce a depressing effect on the visitor. It was decided to experiment with lighter colours, and the walls of the large room were painted with what was, at its first application, a pure cold white, but which after a year's exposure had unfortunately yellowed. The small Elgin Room was painted with pure white tinted with prussian blue, and the Room of the metopes was painted with pure white tinted with cobalt blue and black; it was necessary, for practical reasons, to colour all the dadoes a darker colour<ref>Quoted Ashmole (1994), 125</ref></blockquote>}}
 
Following the retirement of George Francis Hill as Director and Principal Librarian in 1936, he was succeeded by [[John Forsdyke]].

As tensions with Nazi Germany developed and it appeared that war may be imminent Forsdyke came to the view that with the likelihood of far worse air-raids than that experienced in World War I that the museum had to make preparations to remove its most valuable items to secure locations. Following the Munich crisis Forsdyke ordered 3,300 No-Nail Boxes and stored them in the basement of Duveen Gallery. At the same time he began identifying and securing suitable locations. As a result, the museum was able to quickly commence relocating selected items on 24 August 1939, (a mere day after the Home Secretary advised them to do so), to secure basements, [[English country house|country houses]], [[Aldwych tube station|Aldwych Underground station]] and the [[National Library of Wales]].<ref name=Shenton>{{cite book |last= Shenton |first= Caroline |year= 2021 |title= National Treasures: Saving the Nation's Art in World War II |location= London |publisher= John Murray |pages= 60–64, 233–238 |type= Hardback |isbn= 978-1-529-38743-8}}</ref> Many items were relocated in early 1942 from their initial dispersal locations to a newly developed facility at [[Westwood Quarry]] in [[Wiltshire]].<ref name= Shenton/>
The evacuation was timely, for in 1940 the Duveen Gallery was severely damaged by bombing.<ref>Cook, B. F. (2005). ''The Elgin Marbles''. London: The British Museum Press, p. 92.</ref> Meanwhile, prior to the war, the Nazis had sent a researcher to the British Museum for several years with the aim of "compiling an anti-Semitic history of Anglo-Jewry".<ref name="germanlibrariesaronsfeld">{{cite journal|last1=Aronsfeld|first1=C. C.|title=Judaica and Hebraica in German libraries: a review article|journal=Journal of Librarianship and Information Science|date=April 1984|volume=16|issue=2|pages=129–132|doi=10.1177/096100068401600204|s2cid=60789240|quote=The Nazis, in fact, went to great lengths in exploiting Jewish (as well as general) literature. For instance, they arranged for a German researcher to spend several years at the British Museum for the purpose of compiling an anti-Semitic history of Anglo-Jewry, which, at the time, with its 562 pages and a bibliography of some 600 items, was an effort more ambitious than hitherto attempted.}}</ref>

After the war, the museum continued to collect from all countries and all centuries: among the most spectacular additions were the 2600 BC [[Mesopotamia]]n treasure from [[Ur]], discovered during [[Leonard Woolley]]'s 1922–34 excavations. Gold, silver and [[garnet]] grave goods from the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] ship burial at [[Sutton Hoo]] (1939) and late Roman silver tableware from [[Mildenhall Treasure|Mildenhall]], Suffolk (1946). The immediate [[post-war]] years were taken up with the return of the collections from protection and the restoration of the museum after the [[The Blitz|Blitz]]. Work also began on restoring the damaged Duveen Gallery.

===A new public face (1950–1975)===
[[File:The Duveen Gallery (1980s).jpg|thumb|The re-opened [[Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen|Duveen]] Gallery, 1980]]

In 1953, the museum celebrated its [[200 (number)|bicentenary]]. Many changes followed: the first full-time in-house designer and publications officer were appointed in 1964, the [[The British Museum Friends|Friends]] organisation was set up in 1968, an Education Service established in 1970 and publishing house in 1973. In 1963, a new Act of Parliament introduced administrative reforms. It became easier to lend objects, the constitution of the [[board of trustees]] changed and the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] became fully independent. By 1959 the [[British Museum Department of Coins and Medals|Coins and Medals]] office suite, completely destroyed during the war, was rebuilt and re-opened, attention turned towards the gallery work with new tastes in design leading to the remodelling of [[Robert Smirke (architect)|Robert Smirke's]] Classical and Near Eastern galleries.<ref>Wilson, David M. (2002). ''The British Museum: A History''. London: The British Museum Press, p. 270.</ref> In 1962 the Duveen Gallery was finally restored and the Parthenon Sculptures were moved back into it, once again at the heart of the museum.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|1=Ashmole had never liked the Duveen Gallery: <blockquote>It is, I suppose, not positively bad, but it could have been infinitely better. It is pretentious, in that it uses the ancient Marbles to decorate itself. This is a long outmoded idea, and the exact opposite of what a sculpture gallery should do. And, although it incorporates them, it is out of scale, and tends to dwarf them with its bogus Doric features, including those columns, supporting almost nothing which would have made an ancient Greek artist architect wince. The source of daylight is too high above the sculptures, a fault that is only concealed by the amount of reflection from the pinkish marble walls. These are too similar in colour to the marbles... These half-dozen elementary errors were pointed out by everyone in the Museum, and by many scholars outside, when the building was projected.<ref>Ashmole (1994), 126.</ref></blockquote> It was not until the 1980s that the installation of a lighting scheme removed his greatest criticism of the building.}}

By the 1970s, the museum was again expanding. More services for the public were introduced; visitor numbers soared, with the temporary exhibition "Treasures of [[Tutankhamun]]" in 1972, attracting 1,694,117 visitors, the most successful in British history. In the same year the Act of Parliament establishing the British Library was passed, separating the collection of manuscripts and printed books from the British Museum. This left the museum with antiquities; coins, medals and paper money; prints and drawings; and [[ethnography]]. A pressing problem was finding space for additions to the library which now required an extra {{convert|1+1/4|mi}} of shelving each year. The Government suggested a site at [[St Pancras, London|St Pancras]] for the new British Library but the books did not leave the museum until 1997.

===The Great Court emerges (1975–2000)===
The departure of the British Library to a new site at St Pancras, finally achieved in 1998, provided the space needed for the books. It also created the opportunity to redevelop the vacant space in [[Robert Smirke (architect)|Robert Smirke's]] 19th-century central quadrangle into the [[Queen Elizabeth II Great Court]] – the largest covered square in Europe – which opened in 2000. The ethnography collections, which had been housed in the short-lived [[Museum of Mankind]] at [[6 Burlington Gardens]] from 1970, were returned to new purpose-built galleries in the museum in 2000.

The museum again readjusted its collecting policies as interest in "modern" objects: prints, drawings, medals and the decorative arts reawakened. Ethnographical fieldwork was carried out in places as diverse as [[New Guinea]], [[Madagascar]], [[Romania]], [[Guatemala]] and [[Indonesia]] and there were excavations in the [[Near East]], Egypt, Sudan and the UK. The [[Weston family|Weston]] Gallery of Roman Britain, opened in 1997, displayed a number of recently discovered [[hoard]]s which demonstrated the richness of what had been considered an unimportant part of the Roman Empire. The museum turned increasingly towards private funds for buildings, acquisitions and other purposes.<ref>Wilson, David M. (2002). ''The British Museum: A History''. London: The British Museum Press, p. 327.</ref> In 2000, the British Museum was awarded National Heritage [[Museum of the Year]].<ref>{{citation |title=Awards and Winners |url=http://nationalheritage.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/MOYA-list1.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628212635/http://nationalheritage.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/MOYA-list1.pdf |archive-date=28 June 2019 |website=National Heritage |accessdate=28 June 2019}}</ref>

===The British Museum today===
[[File:British Museum Great Court, London, UK - Diliff.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Queen Elizabeth II Great Court|Great Court]] was developed in 2001 and surrounds the original [[British Museum Reading Room|Reading Room]].]]
Today the museum no longer houses collections of [[natural history]], and the books and manuscripts it once held now form part of the independent [[British Library]]. The museum nevertheless preserves its universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and modern. The original 1753 collection has grown to over 13&nbsp;million objects at the British Museum, 70&nbsp;million at the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] and 150&nbsp;million at the British Library.

The [[British Museum Reading Room|Round Reading Room]], which was designed by the architect [[Sydney Smirke]], opened in 1857. For almost 150 years researchers came here to consult the museum's vast library. The Reading Room closed in 1997 when the national library (the British Library) moved to a new building at [[St Pancras, London|St Pancras]]. Today it has been transformed into the Walter and Leonore [[Annenberg Foundation|Annenberg]] Centre.

With the bookstacks in the central courtyard of the museum empty, the demolition for [[Lord Foster]]'s glass-roofed [[Queen Elizabeth II Great Court|Great Court]] could begin. The Great Court, opened in 2000, while undoubtedly improving circulation around the museum, was criticised for having a lack of exhibition space at a time when the museum was in serious financial difficulties and many galleries were closed to the public. At the same time the African collections that had been temporarily housed in 6 Burlington Gardens were given a new gallery in the North Wing funded by the [[David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville|Sainsbury]] family – with the donation valued at £25&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries/africa/room_25_africa.aspx |title=Room 25: Africa |publisher=British Museum |date=14 June 2010 |access-date=4 July 2010 |archive-date=30 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100330130709/http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries/africa/room_25_africa.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

The museum's [[online database]] had nearly 4,500,000 individual object entries in 2,000,000 records at the start of 2023.<ref>{{cite web |title=Explore the collection |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection |website=British Museum |access-date=9 September 2023 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924170437/http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?searchTerm=bernard&orig=%2Fresearch%2Fsearch_the_collection_database%2Fsearch_results_provenance.aspx&personId=101004&personAssociation=&termDisplay=Grdseloff%2C+Bernard&sortby=Bernard |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2022&ndash;23 there were 27 million visits to the website.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/governance |title=The British Museum Review: 2022-23 |date=2023 |publisher=The British Museum |chapter=At a glance}}</ref> This compares with 19.5&nbsp;millions website visits in 2013.<ref name="BBC_museum#">{{Cite news |date=14 January 2014 |title=British Museum gets record 6.7m visitors for 2013 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-25729616 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330134230/http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-25729616 |archive-date=30 March 2014 |access-date=20 March 2014 |newspaper=BBC News}}</ref>

There were 5,820,860 visits to the museum in 2023, a 42% increase on 2022. The museum was the most visited tourist attraction in Britain in 2023. The number of visits, however, has not recovered to the level reached before the Covid pandemic.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Nanji |first=Noor |date=18 March 2024 |title=British Museum is the most-visited UK attraction again |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-68577122 |access-date=18 June 2024 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

A number of [[List of films shot at the British Museum|films have been shot at the British Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Filming Locations |url=https://findthatlocation.com/film-title/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness%20/location/951 |access-date=17 May 2022 |website=Find that Location |archive-date=25 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625144626/https://findthatlocation.com/film-title/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness%20/location/951 |url-status=live }}</ref>