British Museum

The world's first national public museum.
The British Museum was established in 1753 and officially opened in 1759. It is the first national museum in the world to cover all human knowledge areas and open to tourists around the world.

The ideal and values ​​of the Enlightenment -critical review of all assumptions, public debates, scientific research, progress and tolerance -have been the museum logo since its establishment.

The purpose of the museum is full of curiosity about the world. It is believed that items are reliable testimony and documents for human history, conduct reliable research, and eager to expand and share knowledge.

In 1753, Congress passed a bill to create the world's first free National Public Museum, and opened to "all good -learning and curious people" in 1759.Initially, tourists must apply for tickets within a limited opening time to visit the collections of the museum.In fact, this means that only well -related tourists can enter the venue, and the trustee and curator of the museum will take them to visit the collections in person.

Since the 1830s, the rules and regulations of the museum have begun to change, and the opening time has also been extended.Gradually, the museum is really open and open to everyone for free.Now we receive more than 6 million local and international tourists each year.Our extensive tour exhibition and borrowing plan means that millions of people can also visit museum collections in venues around the United Kingdom and around the world.

Sir Hanson (1660-1753), the chairman and doctor of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, collected more than 80,000 "natural and artificial treasures", and built a huge library.32,000 coins and medals.

In the 1753, these collections were purchased for the public. These collections together with the Columbia Library, Harry Library and Royal Library together became a new public institution called the British Museum.Sloan uses the global network established by the European Empire to collect these materials and use the income of slave labor in the sugarcane planting garden to support the purchase.

In the next 260 years, the museum's collections have a wide range, which has increased to about 8 million pieces, covering the human history of 2 million years.Some of these collections were taken away or purchased in areas of British colonial rule, and then they were purchased, donated, or presented to the museum, while other collections were obtained by excavation, sales and other premiums.For more information about this, please visit the collection history page.

Today, the curator is still continuing to collect collection, and cooperates with the museum's scientists and academic and community partners around the United Kingdom and around the world to actively study the collection of collections, including the original collection of collections.We share these stories with the public through gallery exhibitions and temporary exhibitions, publications, gallery lectures, activities, websites (especially online collection) and social media.

The museum's collections were originally stored in the Montanan Mansion in the 17th century. The mansion was renovated on a large scale and opened to the public in 1759.With the increase of collections, new galleries are added to the original building.

Soon, due to the huge space demand, Montanago Building was demolished in 1823. It has been made in the larger Greek revival style building for Sir Robert Smick, which has now become famous.The Enlightenment Gallery (Room 1) is the first side building to be built. It contains the library of King George III. Visitors can still enter the museum through the colonnade. The building is completed in 1852.Richard West Macott designed the sculpture on the gables above the entrance to reflect the "civilization progress" imagined by the British in the Victorian era. At that time, British confidence and global power continued to grow through the expansion of the empire.

The latest technology has always been integrated into the construction of the building, including the towering dome of the circular reading room (opened in 1857) and the Elizabeth II of Elizabeth II, designed by Foster Architects (in 2000open).We continue to expand and develop museum venues based on current demand, and open the World Protection and Exhibition Center in 2013.

The museum has an ambitious plan for the future. We hope to repair this historical building and re -display the collection.These plans will take many years to complete, but the first stage will be the new collection research and storage facility BM _ARC near Reading, which will be opened in 2023.