British Museum

The British Museum, founded by Hans Sloane, was constructed in the 1700's. Hans Sloane was a naturalist who gathered a plethora of items from across the world. At the time of his death, he gave his collection to King George II to share with the country. By allowing his collection to be seen by the public, he kick started what would one day be the biggest museum in the world. The collection of over 8 million objects covers a massive number of country and time periods.

With the British Museum Act of 1753, two libraries were added onto the original collection of Sloane. From there on, it continued to grow into what it is today. Popular items in the collection include the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, an Easter Island head, and multiple mummies.

The British Museum is a huge collection of items from all over the world, so of course I loved it! Egyptian culture has always fascinated me, and the British Museum gave me plenty to look at. Going down to the archive was a bit unsettling. I understand that there’s gobs of information to care for and keep track of, but the fact that there’s no catalogue really bugged me. I feel as though there’s so much more that needs to be done there, but the lack of funding and people to take on the huge task aren’t there. It hurts to know that so much history is down beneath the museum, and yet there’s really no way of knowing what all is down there. The museum really opened my eyes to how bad a situation in a library can be.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/libraries_and_archives.aspx