Treasures of the British Museum [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION'Onthe 7th ofjune 1753 His Majesty,being seated on the Throne adorned with his Crown and Regal Ornaments, and attended by His Officers of State; the Duke of Cumberland in his Robes sitting in his Place on His Majesty's Left Hand; the Lords being also in their Robes the Clerk of the Crown read the Titles of the Bill to be passed as follows An Act for pur/ chasing the Museum or Collection, of Sir Hans Sloane, and of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts and for providing one general Repository for the better Reception and more convenient Use of the said Collections, and of the Cottonian Library, and of the Additions thereto.'To this Bill the Royal Assent was pronounced and in these words; videlicet, Le Roy le veult.'This was the legal instrument setting up the British Museum. The collections of its sister institution, the British Museum (Natural History), 'not dealt with in this book, were originally an integral part of the original British Museum. They were moved en bloc to South Kensington in 1887.There has never been a general history of the British Museum. A glance at the chapters that follow, with the accompanying illustrations, will go far to explain why this is so. The collections at Bloomsbury are so large and so multifarious and the activities of the thirteen various departments so diverse that it would be a task as vast as all the twelve labours of Hercules combined to encompass it in one general study. The department by department survey, by senior officers, here presented, is probably the best approach to a general history that can be offered.One of my most eminent predecessors as Director and Principal Librarian once put forward the view that the British Museum is, next to the Royal Navy, the national institution which is held in most universal respect. Time is no respecter of reputations, but there can be no doubt that the British Museum has the material resources to justify continued acceptance of this idea and, given the developments foreshadowed in plans put forward in the 1960s, will have ample means to display its treasures and bring them into full use for the general public.The British Museum at Bloomsbury is unique in that it comprises under one roof and in one organization a national museum of antiquities and a national library. It was founded in 175 3, following the Will of a welhknown eighteenths century physician, Sir Hans Sloane, who bequeathed his extensive collections4 I The British Museum, the Ionic colonnade and portico completed in 1847^