British Museum
The British Museum is one of the world's greatest and most famous
museums. It is the oldest public museum in the world.
Located in the Bloomsbury area of London, the British Museum is the location
of a national collection of science and art treasures. On 15 January 1759 the
British Museum opened to the public. With the exception of two World Wars,
when parts of the collection were evacuated, it has remained open ever since.
Since its foundation, the British Museum has been guided by three
important principles: that the collections are held in perpetuity (alaliselt) in their
entirety (tervik); that they are widely available to all who seek to enjoy and learn
from them; and that they are curated by full-time specialists.
It first began in 1753 when Parliament purchased (ostis) the collection of
Sir Hans Sloane (the Cabinet of Curiosities) and a collection from Sir Robert
Cotton along with Sir Robert Harley's Library. In 1754/ 5 the British Museum
acquired (omandas) Montagu House in Bloomsbury.
Courtyard of Montagu House, Bloomsbury, 1754.
Later The British Museum was moved to its present location, being built
in stages from 1823. Following the gift of King George IV's father's library in
1823, new buildings had to be prepared. In 1823, Sir Robert Smirke was
commissioned to design the buildings. Smirke's basic concept was of a
quadrangle, initially built in the garden to the north of Montagu House, the
southern wing eventually replacing the old building. In 1852 the proposal was
put forward (tehti ettepanek) that Robert Smirke's empty quadrangle be occupied
by a desperately needed new building for the library. Work on the construction
of the Reading Room, a circular domed reading area surrounded by rectangular
bookstacks, took place in1854. It took more than two decades to build, the
building, including the Reading Room, was completed in 1857.The original
museum had four wings around an open quadrangle in two-acre (0.8-hectare),
quadrangle-shaped courtyard.
When the library and department of Ethnography moved out in 1970-3 to
become the British Library, the required space arrived. The central Quadrangle
was cleared of all structures except the rotunda/Reading Room in the center.
(The Rotunda, the Reading Room, was added, designed by Robert Smirke's
brother, Sydney.) . State-of-the-art engineering created the glazed canopy
(klaasist ehiskatus) and the largest enclosed courtyard (siseõu) in Europe was
created.
At the centre is the restored Reading Room.
The new Great Court development was opened by the Queen on
December 6th 2000.
A recent remodeling of the Great Court with a glass roof has turned the
museum into an entrancing blend of architectural styles old and new.
This Is The Great Court at the British Museum. Designed by Norman Foster
Today, the British Museum is home to no less than six and a half million
objects covering the story of human culture from its first beginning to the
present day. It has ninety four permanent and temporary exhibition galleries.
The museum now uses many hi-tech methods to work out the composition, age
and origins of objects, and how best to conserve them. Access to the collections
is free.
One of the highlights of the museum is the Egyptian collection spanning the
major dynasties with some enormous sculptures of pharaohs' heads, mummies,
sarcophagi, and other beautiful relics. The Egyptian section of the museum is
world famous.
One of the truly amazing objects in the museum is
the Rosetta Stone. British Museum officials said:
"The Rosetta Stone, which has been in the collection
of the British Museum since 1802, is central to the
museum's collection." This one stone was the key to
interpreting the various ancient forgotten languages.
This was possible because an identical message is
repeated using three different written languages.
One of them is hieroglyphics. Because the
archaeologists knew the other two, they learned how
to interpret hieroglyphics.