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The History of The Great British Museum
The British Museum is one of the greatest museums of the world. It was
founded by Act of Parliament in 1753 and is now governed under the British
Museum Act 1963. General management and control are vested in a Board of
twenty-five Trustees (one appointed by the Sovereign, fifteen by the Prime
Minister, four nominated by Learned societies and five elected by the
Trustees themselves.
The Museum is largely funded by a government grant-in-aid administered by
the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Additional income is also
secured through sponsorship and a wide range of commercial and fund-raising
activities. The British Museum Company is responsible for the sale of
publications and fund-raising activities. The British Museum Company is
responsible for the sale of publications and replicas and also operates a
tour company, British Museum Traveller. There are a number of active
supporters' groups including the British Museum Friends, and its Young
Friends, Patrons Associates, the Townley Group, Caryatids, Friends of the
Ancient Near East and Japanese Friends.
The Museum now holds national collections of antiquities; coins, medals and
paper money; ethnography; and prints and drawings. Its natural history
collections were transferred to South Kensington in the 1880s, becoming the
Natural History Museum. The library collections (Printed Books,
Manuscripts, Maps, Music and Stamps) became part of the British Library in
1973 and have now gone to a new building at St Pancras.
The main Museum buildings are in Bloomsbury. The core consists of buildings
of a floor area of about 600,000 square feet, designed by Sir Robert and
Sidney Smirke and erected between the 1820s and 1850s. Major subsequent
additions totalling about 340,000 square feet consists of the Classical and
Assyrian Sculpture Galleries (1850s-1870s), the White Wing (1884), the King
Edward VII Building (1914), the Duveen Gallery (1939/62) and the New Wing
(1979/80). With the departure of the British Library the Museum has
embarked upon a programme of development leading up to its 250th birthday
in 2003. The glass-covered Great Court, opened 7 December 2001 is the
centrepiece of the project.
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