Found in London’s Bloomsbury, the British museum is home to over 7 million items of human history and culture from across the continents! It’s taken the most interesting subject from the beginning of its culture to today- US! Oh come on, who you trying to convince? You know you’re just as superficial as the rest of the world…
Initiated as the curious collections of the physician Sir Hans Sloane over his life time (1660-1753), it was bequeathed to King George II for the sum of £20,000 (can you imagine what that sum would be equivalent to now!?) in 1753 King George gave his assent in parliament which established the collection as the British Museum and opened its doors to the world on 15th January 1759.
Over the centuries that followed, we witnessed the creation of many branches of the institution such as the National History (British Museum) which opened in 1887. It would be silly not to mention the controversy surrounding part of the collections such as the Elgin Marbles of the Parthenon which call for restitution to their counties of origin.
As with most other national museums in the U.K, there is no admission fee. The original collection included a massive number of printed books & manuscripts, antiquities of the Mediterranean, Middle and Far East as well as species of natural history. This is not an exhaustive list by any means!
Oh and what about the British Library? Until 1997 the museum was the only one to house antiquities and a library. Aside from its roots in history, the amount of stuff it has going on today is awesome! What this library has to offer is definitely worth checking out, so get down there folks!
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