Eagle Wings Vacations Journey to British Museum

The British Museum was founded in 1753, the first national public museum in the world. From the beginning it granted free admission to all 'studious and curious persons'. Visitor numbers have grown from around 5,000 a year in the eighteenth century to nearly 6 million today. The British Museum is a museum in London dedicated to human history and culture. Its permanent collection, numbering some 8 million works, is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present

Founder :Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum

Although today principally a museum of cultural art objects and antiquities, the British Museum was founded as a "universal museum". Its foundations lie in the will of the physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (16601753). During the course of his lifetime Sloane gathered an enviable collection of curiosities and, not wishing to see his collection broken up after death, he bequeathed it to King George II, for the nation, for the princely sum of 20,000.

At that time, Sloane's collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds including some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337

volumes of dried plants, prints and drawings including those by Albrecht Drer and antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near and Far East and the Americas. 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 natural specimens 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.

Address: There are two entrances: The main entrance is on Great Russell Street. Here is located the information desk, where you can find information about the museum and its collections. The other entrance is in the north of Montague Square. Schedule: The museum is opened daily from 10:00 am - 5:30 pm. The museum is closed on 24, 25 and 26 December and 1 January

Price The Entrance to the museum is free for all visitors. There might be a fee for the temporary exhibitions, but this information can be obtained from the information desk.

Top 10 Paintings in ancient British museum collections.

1 Virgin and Child with St Anne and John the Baptist 2 The Arnolfini Portrait 3 The Ambassadors 4 The Wilton Diptych

5 Rokeby Venus 6 Mystic Nativity 7 Supper at Emmaus 8 Young Woman Standing at a Virginal 9 A Woman Bathing in a Stream 10 Bathers at La Grenouillire

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