The British Museum 250 Years

Fülszöveg

¦Above all the British Museum pleased me best. It is a grand building, consisting of a great many rooms, all filled with curiosities. First we saw Egyptians that had been dead three thousand years ago. Next we saw the sl(ull of an elephant, and tiie Queen of Otaheite's hat, the crown big enough to hold you, and the brim of it not much unlilte the mat that lies at the bottom of our stairs.There was a piece of the wall of Babylon, and the head-dress of a lady five thousand years ago There were thousands of other things which I have not time to enumerate, and indeed, we could not stay to looit at half of them.' John Coltman, aged twelve, tohisbrother, aged eight (1780)
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This book has been published to record a quarter of a millennium in the life of the most famous museum in the world.The founding of the British Museum - the first ever public, national and secular institution of its kind - took place on 7 June 1753 by means of an Act of Parliament.Today, around 5 million people... Tovább

Fülszöveg

¦Above all the British Museum pleased me best. It is a grand building, consisting of a great many rooms, all filled with curiosities. First we saw Egyptians that had been dead three thousand years ago. Next we saw the sl(ull of an elephant, and tiie Queen of Otaheite's hat, the crown big enough to hold you, and the brim of it not much unlilte the mat that lies at the bottom of our stairs.There was a piece of the wall of Babylon, and the head-dress of a lady five thousand years ago There were thousands of other things which I have not time to enumerate, and indeed, we could not stay to looit at half of them.' John Coltman, aged twelve, tohisbrother, aged eight (1780)
Ni
This book has been published to record a quarter of a millennium in the life of the most famous museum in the world.The founding of the British Museum - the first ever public, national and secular institution of its kind - took place on 7 June 1753 by means of an Act of Parliament.Today, around 5 million people visit it each year, successors to countless others who have passed along Great Russell Street since the Museum opened to the public for the first time on 15 January 1759. Some of their comments-both admiring and critical, but rarely indifferent - are given here.
The British Museum's unique collections, drawn from cultures throughout the world from prehistory to the present, are shown as they were gathered together decade by decade under one roof - Sir Hans Sloane's Dürer drawings, Sir William Hamilton's Greek vases, the Rosetta Stone, the sculptures of the Parthenon, Assyrian lions, Mixtec-Aztec turquoise mosaics, the Oxus treasure, the 'Ram in the thicket' from the Great Death Pit at Ur, the Sutton Hoo ship burial, Japanese paintings, African carvings, Wedgwood pottery, and coins from the Cuerdale Viking hoard, to name but a few. The British Museum: 250Years is a pictorial celebration of these and other treasures, illustrating how this fascinating and complex institution has developed over the course of two and a half centuries.

Marjorie CaygiUis the author of a number of bool(s and articles on the history and collections of the Museum, including The Story of the British Museum, The British Museum A-Z Companion and Treasures of the British Museum.
With 210 colour and 60 black and white illustrations.
The British Museum Press 46 Bloomsbury Street LondonWC1B3QQ www.britishmuseum.co.uk
Printed in Italy Vissza