British Museum
The British Museum is one of the largest and most important human history museums in the world. It was founded in 1700 by Sir Hans Sloane, who allowed his huge private collection of curios to be given to the state, if his heirs were paid £20,000. Eventually the government decided to buy Sloane's treasures, and following his death in 1753 the British Museum was formally born. The first exhibition galleries and reading rooms opened in Montagu House, Bloomsbury, London, in 1759.
Later donations from Captain Cook and Greek and Roman artifacts sold by Sir William Hamilton saw the museum's stock shoot up. This was the precursor for the booming 19th century, in which the British Library would become one of the most powerful in the world. Bolstered by objects such as the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles and Babylonian artifacts, the museum soon outgrew its surroundings, and thus a new, neo-classical building was designed by Sir Robert Smirke, for completion in 1831.
As the museum grew in stature, so it sent archaeologists abroad itself to find treasures of the ancient world. Excavations in Lykia, Assyria and Mesopotamia threw up incredible finds, not least Charles Newton's discovery of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. Later on John Turtle Wood also discovered the Temple of Artemis.
More expansion followed, including Sydney Smirke's Round Reading Room - the natural historical artifacts even set up their own now famous museum in South Kensington. Egypt became the museum's buzz word, which eventuated in the discovery of some of ancient Egypt's most impressive curiosities. A White Wing was also added in 1914.
Following the war, the damaged museum was restored. And in 2000 it gained its newest expansion; Lord Foster's Great Court, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II and named in her honour.
