British Museum

The origins of the British Museum lie in the will of the physician, naturalist and collector, Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753).Over his lifetime, Sloane collected more that 71,000 objects which he wanted to be preserved intact after his death. So he bequeathed the whole collection to King George II for the nation in return for a payment of £20,000 to his heirs.The gift was accepted and on 7 June 1753, an Act of Parliament established the British Museum.The founding collections largely consisted of books, manuscripts and naturalspecimens with some antiquities (including coins and medals, prints and drawings) and ethnographic material. In 1757 King George II donated the 'Old Royal Library' of the sovereigns of England and with it the privilege of copyright receipt.The British Museum opened to the public on 15 January 1759 . It was first housed in a seventeenth-century mansion, Montagu House, in Bloomsbury on the site of today's building. Entry was free and given to ‘all studious and curious Persons’.With the exception of two World Wars, the Museum has remained open ever since, gradually increasing its opening hours and moving from an attendance of 5,000 per year to today's 6 million.

The British Museum in London is the world's largest museum of human history, culture and art. Its treasures include Egyptian mummies, objects from the Mesopotamian Kingdom of Ur, an Easter Island statue given to the museum by Queen Victoria, objects from the Sutton Hoo burial and (at least for now) the Elgin Marbles that once graced the Parthenon in Greece.For my money the best object of all at the British Museum is the Rosetta Stone - a decree of Ptolemy, one of the last pharaohs, carved in three languages on a polished black stone. The carving is in hieroglyphics, demotic Egyptian script and Greek. It was the Greek inscription that was used to unlock the mystery of the other writing, including the hieroglyphics, and, therefore just about everything now known about ancient Egypt. A wonder indeed!