WPA Charles Locke MOMA BRITISH museum DRAWINGOriginal Pencil Signed (1899-1983)

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (807) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US, Item: 176270372898 WPA Charles Locke MOMA BRITISH museum DRAWINGOriginal Pencil Signed (1899-1983) . Harpy Tomb, (480–470 BC). Room 21 – Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, mid-4th century BC. Room 18 – Parthenon marbles from the Acropolis of Athens, 447 BC. Cabinet of curiosities (1753–1778). CHARLES LOCKE DRAWING GRAPHITE ON PAPER MEASURING APPROXIMATELY 6 1/8 X 6 3/8 INCHES WITH A MAT 16X20 INCHES.  Locke, an accomplished painter and printmaker, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied at the Ohio Mechanics Institute (later the Cincinnati Art Academy), and at the Art Students League of New York under Joseph Pennell. He traveled to Europe and studied in Paris. Locke taught lithography at the Art Students League for a number of years. He was the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, and his work is held by many major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection, The British Museum, and the Corcoran Gallery. Locke died at Garrison, New York.
Charles Wheeler Locke (1899-1983), painter, lithographer, illustrator and teacher, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 31, 1899. He studied at the Ohio Mechanic Institute, which became known as the Cincinnati Art Academy. Further studies were in New York at the Art Students’ League with Joseph Pennell. He also studied with Herman Henry Wessel and John Ellsworth Weis. Locke taught lithography at the Art Students’ League between 1922 and 1937. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, Society of American Etchers, American Print Makers, American Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, and the Century Club. He was awarded grants from the Tiffany Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Museum collections that hold Locke’s work include the British Museum, the Library of Congress, Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Phillips Collection, Dartmouth College, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Amon Carter Museum, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Locke died in Garrison, New York in July of 1983. Charles Wheeler Locke American, 20th Century Charles Wheeler Locke was a painter, illustrator, etcher, lithographer, teacher, and drawing specialist. He was born in Cincinnati, OH on August 31, 1899 and died in Garrison, NY in 1983. He is best remembered for his etchings and his urban genre, portraits, and bar scenes. Locke first studied art in his native Cincinnati at the Mechanics Ohio Institute. In 1921 he became a student at the Art Students League, New York, and studied under John Weis, H. H. Wessel and Joseph Pennell. Pennell (the disciple and biographer of Whistler) was the leading force of American printmaking at this time. He quickly recognized Locke’s talents (particularly in the medium of lithography) and hired him as his primary assistant. In 1923 Pennell selected Locke to succeed him as Instructor of Lithography at the Art Students League. From 1925, Charles Locke’s lithographs of the docks,, wharves and streets of New York and Brooklyn gained international recognition. His role as a teacher was also important. Among other accomplishments, Locke introduced John Stewart Curry to lithography and helped to influence his early work. Charles Locke was a full member of the Society of American Etchers, the American Printmakers, the American Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers and the Century Club, New York, and was an Associate of the National Academy of Design. He illustrated Tale of a Tub, by Swift and published by Columbia University Press. Locke's address in 1929 was 78 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn, NY and his summer residence was 3906 Hazel Avenue in Norwood, OH. His exhibitions and awards include the Logan Medal at the Art Institute of Chicago; the Tiffany Foundation Award; the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Locke's work is represented in the collections of the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, MA; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the British Museum in London; the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX; the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, FL; the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL; the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, MI; the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, MN; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Loretto, PA; the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh / Carnegie Institute; and the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. Locke also illustrated for Walden & Capt. Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven and contributed to the Freeman Magazine. References: Who Was Who in American Art, vol. I, page 376; Davenport's Art Reference 2001/2002, page 1167; Mantle Fielding,1986, page 549; Mallett, page 259; Dealer's Choice Biographical Encyclopedia of American Painters... page 841; Whistler House Museum of Art files. Locke, an accomplished painter and printmaker, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied at the Ohio Mechanics Institute (later the Cincinnati Art Academy), and at the Art Students League of New York under Joseph Pennell. He traveled to Europe and studied in Paris. Locke taught lithography at the Art Students League for a number of years. He was the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, and his work is held by many major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection, The British Museum, and the Corcoran Gallery. Locke died at Garrison, New York. The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency, employing millions of job-seekers (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects,[1] including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was established on May 6, 1935, by Executive Order 7034. In one project, Federal Project Number One, the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects.[1] The five projects dedicated to these were: the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), the Historical Records Survey (HRS), the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), the Federal Music Project (FMP), and the Federal Art Project (FAP). In the Historical Records Survey, for instance, many former slaves in the South were interviewed; these documents are of great importance for American history. Theater and music groups toured throughout America, and gave more than 225,000 performances. Archaeological investigations under the WPA were influential in the rediscovery of pre-Columbian Native American cultures, and the development of professional archaeology in the US. Almost every community in the United States had a new park, bridge, or school that was constructed by the agency. The WPA's initial appropriation in 1935 was for $4.9 billion (about 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP).[2] Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while developing infrastructure to support the current and future society. Above all, the WPA hired workers and craftsmen who were mainly employed in building streets. Thus, under the leadership of the WPA, more than 1 million km of streets and over 10,000 bridges were built, in addition to many airports and much housing. The largest single project of the WPA was the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provided the impoverished Tennessee Valley with dams and waterworks to create an infrastructure for electrical power. Many famous structures were constructed with the help of WPA labor and funds, including Camp David, the presidential estate in Maryland often used for international meetings, and the on-ramp to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. At its peak in 1938, it provided paid jobs for three million unemployed men and women, as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration. Between 1935 and 1943, when the agency was disbanded, the WPA employed 8.5 million people.[3] Most people who needed a job were eligible for employment in some capacity.[4] Hourly wages were typically set to the prevailing wages in each area.[5]:70 Full employment, which was reached in 1942 and emerged as a long-term national goal around 1944, was not the goal of the WPA; rather, it tried to provide one paid job for all families in which the breadwinner suffered long-term unemployment.[6]:64, 184 "The stated goal of public building programs was to end the depression or, at least, alleviate its worst effects," sociologist Robert D. Leighninger asserted. "Millions of people needed subsistence incomes. Work relief was preferred over public assistance (the dole) because it maintained self-respect, reinforced the work ethic, and kept skills sharp."[7]:228 The WPA was a national program that operated its own projects in cooperation with state and local governments, which provided 10–30% of the costs. Usually the local sponsor provided land and often trucks and supplies, with the WPA responsible for wages (and for the salaries of supervisors, who were not on relief). WPA sometimes took over state and local relief programs that had originated in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) or Federal Emergency Relief Administration programs (FERA).[6]:63 It was liquidated on June 30, 1943, as a result of low unemployment due to the worker shortage of World War II. The WPA had provided millions of Americans with jobs for eight years.[6]:71 Contents 1 Establishment 2 Employment 3 Projects 3.1 Federal Project Number One 3.1.1 Federal Art Project 3.1.2 Federal Music Project 3.1.3 Federal Theatre Project 3.1.4 Federal Writers' Project 3.1.5 Historical Records Survey 4 Relief for African Americans 5 Women 6 Criticism 7 Evolution 8 Termination 9 Legacy 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links Establishment FDR prepares to speak about the establishment of the work relief program and Social Security at his fireside chat of April 28, 1935. FERA administrator and WPA head Harry Hopkins speaking to reporters (November 1935) A joint resolution introduced January 21, 1935,[8] the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 8, 1935.[9] On May 6, 1935, FDR issued executive order 7034, establishing the Works Progress Administration.[10][11] The WPA superseded the work of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which was dissolved. Direct relief assistance was permanently replaced by a national work relief program—a major public works program directed by the WPA.[12] The WPA was largely shaped by Harry Hopkins, supervisor of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and close adviser to Roosevelt. Both Roosevelt and Hopkins believed that the route to economic recovery and the lessened importance of the dole would be in employment programs such as the WPA.[6]:56–57 Hallie Flanagan, national director of the Federal Theatre Project, wrote that "for the first time in the relief experiments of this country the preservation of the skill of the worker, and hence the preservation of his self-respect, became important."[13]:17 The WPA was organized into the following divisions: The Division of Engineering and Construction, which planned and supervised construction projects including airports, dams, highways and sanitation systems.[14] The Division of Professional and Service Projects (called the Division of Women's and Professional Projects in 1937), which was responsible for white-collar projects including education programs, recreation programs, and the arts projects. It was later named the Division of Community Service Programs and the Service Division.[15] The Division of Finance.[16] The Division of Information.[17] The Division of Investigation, which succeeded a comparable division at FERA and investigated fraud, misappropriation of funds and disloyalty.[18] The Division of Statistics, also known as the Division of Social Research.[19] The Project Control Division, which processed project applications.[20] Other divisions including the Employment, Management, Safety, Supply, and Training and Reemployment.[21] Employment WPA road development project These ordinary men and women proved to be extraordinary beyond all expectation. They were golden threads woven in the national fabric. In this, they shamed the political philosophy that discounted their value and rewarded the one that placed its faith in them, thus fulfilling the founding vision of a government by and for its people. All its people. — Nick Taylor, American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA[22]:530 The goal of the WPA was to employ most of the unemployed people on relief until the economy recovered. Harry Hopkins testified to Congress in January 1935 why he set the number at 3.5 million, using Federal Emergency Relief Administration data. Estimating costs at $1,200 per worker per year ($21.9 thousand in present-day terms[23]), he asked for and received $4 billion ($73.1 billion in present-day terms[23]). Many women were employed, but they were few compared to men. In 1935 there were 20 million people on relief in the United States. Of these, 8.3 million were children under 16 years of age; 3.8 million were persons between the ages of 16 and 65 who were not working or seeking work. These included housewives, students in school, and incapacitated persons. Another 750,000 were person age 65 or over.[24]:562 Thus, of the total of 20 million persons then receiving relief, 13 million were not considered eligible for employment. This left a total of 7 million presumably employable persons between the ages of 16 and 65 inclusive. Of these, however, 1.65 million were said to be farm operators or persons who had some non-relief employment, while another 350,000 were, despite the fact that they were already employed or seeking work, considered incapacitated. Deducting this 2 million from the total of 7.15 million, there remained 5.15 million persons age 16 to 65, unemployed, looking for work, and able to work.[24]:562 FDR and Hopkins (September 1938) Because of the assumption that only one worker per family would be permitted to work under the proposed program, this total of 5.15 million was further reduced by 1.6 million—the estimated number of workers who were members of families with two or more employable people. Thus, there remained a net total of 3.55 million workers in as many households for whom jobs were to be provided.[24]:562 The WPA reached its peak employment of 3,334,594 people in November 1938.[22]:547 To be eligible for WPA employment, an individual had to be an American citizen, 18 or older, able-bodied, unemployed, and certified as in need by a local public relief agency approved by the WPA. The WPA Division of Employment selected the worker's placement to WPA projects based on previous experience or training. Worker pay was based on three factors: the region of the country, the degree of urbanization, and the individual's skill. It varied from $19 per month to $94 per month, with the average wage being about $52.50—$934 in present-day terms.[23][25] The goal was to pay the local prevailing wage, but limit the hours of work to 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week; the stated minimum being 30 hours a week, or 120 hours a month.[24]:213 Projects Typical plaque on a WPA project Griffith Observatory Timberline Lodge WPA projects were administered by the Division of Engineering and Construction and the Division of Professional and Service Projects. Most projects were initiated, planned and sponsored by states, counties or cities. Nationwide projects were sponsored until 1939.[26] The WPA built traditional infrastructure of the New Deal such as roads, bridges, schools, libraries, courthouses, hospitals, sidewalks, waterworks, and post-offices, but also constructed museums, swimming pools, parks, community centers, playgrounds, coliseums, markets, fairgrounds, tennis courts, zoos, botanical gardens, auditoriums, waterfronts, city halls, gyms, and university unions. Most of these are still in use today.[7]:226 The amount of infrastructure projects of the WPA included 40,000 new and 85,000 improved buildings. These new buildings included 5,900 new schools; 9,300 new auditoriums, gyms, and recreational buildings; 1,000 new libraries; 7,000 new dormitories; and 900 new armories. In addition, infrastructure projects included 2,302 stadiums, grandstands, and bleachers; 52 fairgrounds and rodeo grounds; 1,686 parks covering 75,152 acres; 3,185 playgrounds; 3,026 athletic fields; 805 swimming pools; 1,817 handball courts; 10,070 tennis courts; 2,261 horseshoe pits; 1,101 ice-skating areas; 138 outdoor theatres; 254 golf courses; and 65 ski jumps.[7]:227 Total expenditures on WPA projects through June 1941 totaled approximately $11.4 billion—the equivalent of $194 billion today.[23] Over $4 billion was spent on highway, road, and street projects; more than $1 billion on public buildings, including the iconic Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, and Timberline Lodge in Oregon's Mount Hood National Forest.[27]:252–253 More than $1 billion—$17 billion today[23]—was spent on publicly owned or operated utilities; and another $1 billion on welfare projects, including sewing projects for women, the distribution of surplus commodities, and school lunch projects.[24]:129 One construction project was the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, the bridges of which were each designed as architecturally unique.[28] In its eight-year run, the WPA built 325 firehouses and renovated 2,384 of them across the United States. The 20,000 miles of water mains, installed by their hand as well, contributed to increased fire protection across the country.[6]:69 The direct focus of the WPA projects changed with need. In 1935 priority projects were to improve infrastructure; roads, extension of electricity to rural areas, water conservation, sanitation and flood control. In 1936, as outlined in that year's Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, public facilities became a focus; parks and associated facilities, public buildings, utilities, airports, and transportation projects were funded. The following year, saw the introduction of agricultural improvements, such as the production of marl fertilizer and the eradication of fungus pests. As the Second World War approached, and then eventually began, WPA projects became increasingly defense related.[6]:70 One project of the WPA was funding state-level library service demonstration projects, to create new areas of library service to underserved populations and to extend rural service.[29] Another project was the Household Service Demonstration Project, which trained 30,000 women for domestic employment. South Carolina had one of the larger statewide library service demonstration projects. At the end of the project in 1943, South Carolina had twelve publicly funded county libraries, one regional library, and a funded state library agency.[30] Federal Project Number One A significant aspect of the Works Progress Administration was the Federal Project Number One, which had five different parts: the Federal Art Project, the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theatre Project, the Federal Writers' Project, and the Historical Records Survey. The government wanted to provide new federal cultural support instead of just providing direct grants to private institutions. After only one year, over 40,000 artists and other talented workers had been employed through this project in the United States.[31] Cedric Larson stated that "The impact made by the five major cultural projects of the WPA upon the national consciousness is probably greater in toto than anyone readily realizes. As channels of communication between the administration and the country at large, both directly and indirectly, the importance of these projects cannot be overestimated, for they all carry a tremendous appeal to the eye, the ear, or the intellect—or all three."[32]:491 Federal Art Project Main article: Federal Art Project This project was directed by Holger Cahill, and in 1936 employment peaked at over 5,300 artists. The Arts Service Division created illustrations and posters for the WPA writers, musicians, and theaters. The Exhibition Division had public exhibitions of artwork from the WPA, and artists from the Art Teaching Division were employed in settlement houses and community centers to give classes to an estimated 50,000 children and adults. They set up over 100 art centers around the country that served an estimated eight million individuals.[31] Federal Music Project Noon-hour WPA band concert in Lafayette Square, New Orleans (1940) Main article: Federal Music Project Directed by Nikolai Sokoloff, former principal conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, the Federal Music Project employed over 16,000 musicians at its peak. Its purpose was to establish different ensembles such as chamber groups, orchestras, choral units, opera units, concert bands, military bands, dance bands, and theater orchestras that gave an estimated 131,000 performances and programs to 92 million people each week.[31] The Federal Music Project performed plays and dances, as well as radio dramas.[32]:494 In addition, the Federal Music Project gave music classes to an estimated 132,000 children and adults every week, recorded folk music, served as copyists, arrangers, and librarians to expand the availability of music, and experimented in music therapy.[31] Sokoloff stated, "Music can serve no useful purpose unless it is heard, but these totals on the listeners' side are more eloquent than statistics as they show that in this country there is a great hunger and eagerness for music."[32]:494 Federal Theatre Project Main article: Federal Theatre Project This project was directed by Iowan Hallie Flanagan, and employed 12,700 performers at its peak. These performers presented more than 1,000 performances each month to almost one million people, produced 1,200 plays in the four years it was established, and introduced 100 new playwrights. Many performers later became successful in Hollywood including Orson Welles, John Houseman, Burt Lancaster, Joseph Cotten, Canada Lee, Will Geer, Joseph Losey, Virgil Thomson, Nicholas Ray, E.G. Marshall and Sidney Lumet. The Federal Theatre Project was the first project to end in June 1939 after four years from an end of funding from the federal government.[31] Federal Writers' Project Main article: Federal Writers' Project This project was directed by Henry Alsberg and employed 6,686 writers at its peak in 1936.[31] By January 1939, more than 275 major books and booklets had been published by the FWP.[32]:494 Most famously, the FWP created the American Guide Series, which produced thorough guidebooks for every state that include descriptions of towns, waterways, historic sites, oral histories, photographs, and artwork.[31] An association or group that put up the cost of publication sponsored each book, the cost was anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000. In almost all cases, the book sales were able to reimburse their sponsors.[32]:494 Additionally, another important part of this project was to record oral histories to create archives such as the Slave Narratives and collections of folklore. These writers also participated in research and editorial services to other government agencies.[31] Historical Records Survey Main article: Historical Records Survey This project was the smallest of Federal Project Number One and served to identify, collect, and conserve United States' historical records.[31] It is one of the biggest bibliographical efforts and was directed by Dr. Luther H. Evans. At its peak, this project employed more than 4,400 workers.[32]:494 1940 WPA poster using Little Miss Muffet to promote reading among children.   WPA health education poster about cancer, c. 1936–1938   Poster for the WPA shows various items that can be purchased at the 5 & 10¢ store   WPA poster advertising art classes for children   WPA poster promoting the zoo as a place to visit, showing an elephant   1936 WPA Poster for Federal Theatre Project presentation   WPA poster encouraging laborers to work for America Relief for African Americans The share of Federal Emergency Relief Administration and WPA benefits for African Americans exceeded their proportion of the general population. The FERA's first relief census reported that more than two million African Americans were on relief during early 1933, a proportion of the African-American population (17.8%) that was nearly double the proportion of whites on relief (9.5%).[33] This was during the period of Jim Crow and racial segregation in the South, when blacks were largely disenfranchised. By 1935, there were 3,500,000 African Americans (men, women and children) on relief, almost 35 percent of the African-American population; plus another 250,000 African-American adults were working on WPA projects. Altogether during 1938, about 45 percent of the nation's African-American families were either on relief or were employed by the WPA.[33] Civil rights leaders initially objected that African Americans were proportionally underrepresented. African American leaders made such a claim with respect to WPA hires in New Jersey, stating, "In spite of the fact that Blacks indubitably constitute more than 20 percent of the State's unemployed, they composed 15.9% of those assigned to W.P.A. jobs during 1937."[24]:287 Nationwide in 1940, 9.8% of the population were African American. However, by 1941, the perception of discrimination against African Americans had changed to the point that the NAACP magazine Opportunity hailed the WPA: It is to the eternal credit of the administrative officers of the WPA that discrimination on various projects because of race has been kept to a minimum and that in almost every community Negroes have been given a chance to participate in the work program. In the South, as might have been expected, this participation has been limited, and differential wages on the basis of race have been more or less effectively established; but in the northern communities, particularly in the urban centers, the Negro has been afforded his first real opportunity for employment in white-collar occupations.[24]:295 The WPA mostly operated segregated units, as did its youth affiliate, the National Youth Administration.[34] Blacks were hired by the WPA as supervisors in the North; however of 10,000 WPA supervisors in the South, only 11 were black.[35] Historian Anthony Badger argues, "New Deal programs in the South routinely discriminated against blacks and perpetuated segregation."[36] Women Women in Costilla, New Mexico, weaving rag rugs in 1939 About 15% of the household heads on relief were women, and youth programs were operated separately by the National Youth Administration. The average worker was about 40 years old (about the same as the average family head on relief). WPA policies were consistent with the strong belief of the time that husbands and wives should not both be working (because the second person working would take one job away from some other breadwinner). A study of 2,000 female workers in Philadelphia showed that 90% were married, but wives were reported as living with their husbands in only 18 percent of the cases. Only 2 percent of the husbands had private employment. Of the 2,000 women, all were responsible for one to five additional people in the household.[24]:283 In rural Missouri, 60% of the WPA-employed women were without husbands (12% were single; 25% widowed; and 23% divorced, separated or deserted). Thus, only 40% were married and living with their husbands, but 59% of the husbands were permanently disabled, 17% were temporarily disabled, 13% were too old to work, and remaining 10% were either unemployed or handicapped. Most of the women worked with sewing projects, where they were taught to use sewing machines and made clothing and bedding, as well as supplies for hospitals, orphanages, and adoption centers.[24]:283[37] One WPA-funded project, the Pack Horse Library Project, mainly employed women to deliver books to rural areas in eastern Kentucky.[38] Many of the women employed by the project were the sole breadwinners for their families.[39] Criticism Poster representing the WPA defending itself from attacks The WPA had numerous critics, especially from conservatives.[citation needed] The strongest attacks were that it was the prelude for a national political machine on behalf of Roosevelt. Reformers secured the Hatch Act of 1939 that largely depoliticized the WPA.[40] Others complained that far left elements played a major role, especially in the New York City unit. Representative J. Parnell Thomas of the House Committee on Un-American Activities claimed in 1938 that divisions of the WPA were a "hotbed of Communists" and "one more link in the vast and unparalleled New Deal propaganda network."[41] Much of the criticism of the distribution of projects and funding allotment is a result of the view that the decisions were politically motivated. The South, as the poorest region of the United States, received 75 percent less in federal relief and public works funds per capita than the West. Critics would point to the fact that Roosevelt's Democrats could be sure of voting support from the South, whereas the West was less of a sure thing; swing states took priority over the other states.[5]:70 There was a perception that WPA employees were not diligent workers, and that they had little incentive to give up their busy work in favor of productive jobs. Some employers said that the WPA instilled poor work habits and encouraged inefficiency.[42] Some job applicants found that a WPA work history was viewed negatively by employers, who said they had formed poor work habits.[43] A Senate committee reported that, "To some extent the complaint that WPA workers do poor work is not without foundation. ... Poor work habits and incorrect techniques are not remedied. Occasionally a supervisor or a foreman demands good work."[44] The WPA and its workers were ridiculed as being lazy. The organization's initials were said to stand for "We Poke Along" or "We Putter Along" or "We Piddle Around" or "Whistle, Piss and Argue." These were sarcastic references to WPA projects that sometimes slowed down deliberately because foremen had an incentive to keep going, rather than finish a project.[45] The WPA's Division of Investigation proved so effective in preventing political corruption "that a later congressional investigation couldn't find a single serious irregularity it had overlooked," wrote economist Paul Krugman. "This dedication to honest government wasn't a sign of Roosevelt's personal virtue; rather, it reflected a political imperative. FDR's mission in office was to show that government activism works. To maintain that mission's credibility he needed to keep his administration's record clean. And he did."[46] Evolution Francis C. Harrington, WPA national administrator 1938–40 On December 23, 1938, after leading the WPA for 3.5 years, Harry Hopkins resigned and became the Secretary of Commerce. To succeed him Roosevelt appointed Francis C. Harrington, a colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers and the WPA's chief engineer, who had been leading the Division of Engineering and Construction.[22]:417–420 Following the passage of the Reorganization Act of 1939 in April 1939, the WPA was grouped with the Bureau of Public Roads, Public Buildings Branch of the Procurement Division, Branch of Buildings Management of the National Park Service, United States Housing Authority and the Public Works Administration under the newly created Federal Works Agency. Created at the same time, the Federal Security Agency assumed the WPA's responsibility for the National Youth Administration. "The name of the Works Progress Administration has been changed to Work Projects Administration in order to make its title more descriptive of its major purpose," President Roosevelt wrote when announcing the reorganization.[47] As WPA projects became more subject to the state, local sponsors were called on to provide 25% of project costs. As the number of public works projects slowly diminished, more projects were dedicated to preparing for war.[7]:227 Having languished since the end of World War I, the American military services were depopulated and served by crumbling facilities; when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938, the U.S. Army numbered only 176,000 soldiers.[22]:494 WPA researchers and map makers prepare the air raid warning map for New Orleans within days of the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 11, 1941) On May 26, 1940, FDR delivered a fireside chat to the American people about "the approaching storm",[48] and on June 6 Harrington reprioritized WPA projects, anticipating a major expansion of the U.S. military. "Types of WPA work to be expedited in every possible way to include, in addition to airports and military airfields, construction of housing and other facilities for enlarged military garrisons, camp and cantonment construction, and various improvements in navy yards," Harrington said. He observed that the WPA had already made substantial contributions to national defense over its five years of existence, by building 85 percent of the new airports in the U.S. and making $420 million in improvements to military facilities. He predicted there would be 500,000 WPA workers on defense-related projects over the next 12 months, at a cost of $250 million.[22]:492–493 The estimated number of WPA workers needed for defense projects was soon revised to between 600,000 and 700,000. Vocational training for war industries was also begun by the WPA, with 50,000 trainees in the program by October 1940.[22]:494 "Only the WPA, having employed millions of relief workers for more than five years, had a comprehensive awareness of the skills that would be available in a full-scale national emergency," wrote journalist Nick Taylor. "As the country began its preparedness buildup, the WPA was uniquely positioned to become a major defense agency."[22]:494–495 Harrington died suddenly, aged 53, on September 30, 1940. Notably apolitical—he boasted that he had never voted[49]—he had deflected Congressional criticism of the WPA by bringing attention to its building accomplishments and its role as an employer.[22]:504 Harrington's successor, Howard O. Hunter, served as head of the WPA until May 1, 1942.[22]:517 Termination Unemployment ended with war production for World War II, as millions of men joined the services, and cost-plus contracts made it attractive for companies to hire unemployed men and train them.[22][page needed][31] Concluding that a national relief program was no longer needed, Roosevelt directed the Federal Works Administrator to end the WPA in a letter December 4, 1942. "Seven years ago I was convinced that providing useful work is superior to any and every kind of dole. Experience had amply justified this policy," FDR wrote: By building airports, schools, highways, and parks; by making huge quantities of clothing for the unfortunate; by serving millions of lunches to school children; by almost immeasurable kinds and quantities of service the Work Projects Administration has reached a creative hand into every county in this Nation. It has added to the national wealth, has repaired the wastage of depression, and has strengthened the country to bear the burden of war. By employing eight millions of Americans, with thirty millions of dependents, it has brought to these people renewed hope and courage. It has maintained and increased their working skills; and it has enabled them once more to take their rightful places in public or in private employment.[50] Roosevelt ordered a prompt end to WPA activities to conserve funds that had been appropriated. Operations in most states ended February 1, 1943. With no funds budgeted for the next fiscal year, the WPA ceased to exist after June 30, 1943.[50] Legacy "The agencies of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration had an enormous and largely unrecognized role in defining the public space we now use", wrote sociologist Robert D. Leighninger. "In a short period of ten years, the Public Works Administration, the Works Progress Administration, and the Civilian Conservation Corps built facilities in practically every community in the country. Most are still providing service half a century later. It is time we recognized this legacy and attempted to comprehend its relationship to our contemporary situation."[7]:226
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence.[3] It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.[a] The British Museum was the first public national museum in the world.[4] The Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.[5] It first opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. The museum's expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of British colonisation and has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, or independent spin-offs, the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881. In 1973, the British Library Act 1972 detached the library department from the British Museum, but it continued to host the now separated British Library in the same Reading Room and building as the museum until 1997. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and as with all national museums in the UK it charges no admission fee, except for loan exhibitions.[6] Its ownership of a small percentage of its most famous objects originating in other countries is disputed and remains the subject of international controversy through repatriation claims, most notably in the case of the Elgin Marbles of Greece,[7] and the Rosetta Stone of Egypt.[8] Contents 1 History 1.1 Sir Hans Sloane 1.2 Foundation (1753) 1.3 Cabinet of curiosities (1753–1778) 1.4 Indolence and energy (1778–1800) 1.5 Growth and change (1800–1825) 1.6 The largest building site in Europe (1825–1850) 1.7 Collecting from the wider world (1850–1875) 1.8 Scholarship and legacies (1875–1900) 1.9 New century, new building (1900–1925) 1.10 Disruption and reconstruction (1925–1950) 1.11 A new public face (1950–1975) 1.12 The Great Court emerges (1975–2000) 1.13 The British Museum today 2 Governance 2.1 Director 2.2 Trustees 3 Building 4 Departments 4.1 Department of Egypt and Sudan 4.2 Department of Greece and Rome 4.3 Department of the Middle East 4.4 Department of Prints and Drawings 4.5 Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory 4.6 Department of Asia 4.7 Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas 4.8 Department of Coins and Medals 4.9 Department of Conservation and Scientific Research 4.10 Libraries and archives 5 British Museum Press 6 Controversies 6.1 Artefacts taken from other countries 6.1.1 Disputed items in the collection 6.2 BP sponsorship 6.3 Chairman’s Advisory Group 7 Galleries 7.1 Digital and online 8 Exhibitions 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links History Sir Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane 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 Anglo-Irish physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), a London-based doctor and scientist from Ulster. During the course of his lifetime, and particularly after he married the widow of a wealthy Jamaican planter,[9] Sloane gathered a large 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 a sum of £20,000.[10] At that time, Sloane's collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds[11] 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 Dürer and antiquities from Sudan, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near and Far East and the Americas.[12] Foundation (1753) On 7 June 1753, King George II gave his Royal Assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum.[b] The British Museum Act 1753 also added two other libraries to the Sloane collection, namely the Cottonian Library, assembled by Sir Robert Cotton, dating back to Elizabethan times, and the Harleian Library, the collection of the Earls of Oxford. They were joined in 1757 by the "Old Royal Library", now the Royal manuscripts, assembled by various British monarchs. Together these four "foundation collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library[14] including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving manuscript of Beowulf.[c] Montagu House, c. 1715 The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests.[15] The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary and antiquarian element, and meant that the British Museum now became both National Museum and library.[16] Cabinet of curiosities (1753–1778) The Rosetta Stone on display in the British Museum in 1874 The body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. The trustees rejected Buckingham House, which was later converted into the present day Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost and the unsuitability of its location.[17][d] With the acquisition of Montagu House, the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759.[18] At this time, the largest parts of collection were the library, which took up the majority of the rooms on the ground floor of Montagu House, and the natural history objects, which took up an entire wing on the second state storey of the building. In 1763, the trustees of the British Museum, under the influence of Peter Collinson and William Watson, employed the former student of Carl Linnaeus, Daniel Solander, to reclassify the natural history collection according to the Linnaean system, thereby making the Museum a public centre of learning accessible to the full range of European natural historians.[19] In 1823, King George IV gave the King's Library assembled by George III,[20] and Parliament gave the right to a copy of every book published in the country, thereby ensuring that the museum's library would expand indefinitely. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several further gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts and David Garrick's library of 1,000 printed plays. The predominance of natural history, books and manuscripts began to lessen when in 1772 the museum acquired for £8,410 its first significant antiquities in Sir William Hamilton's "first" collection of Greek vases.[21] Indolence and energy (1778–1800) Entrance ticket to the British Museum, London 3 March 1790 From 1778, a display of objects from the South Seas brought back from the round-the-world voyages of Captain James Cook and the travels of other explorers fascinated visitors with a glimpse of previously unknown lands. The bequest of a collection of books, engraved gems, coins, prints and drawings by Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode in 1800 did much to raise the museum's reputation; but Montagu House became increasingly crowded and decrepit and it was apparent that it would be unable to cope with further expansion.[22] The museum's first notable addition towards its collection of antiquities, since its foundation, was by Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), British Ambassador to Naples, who sold his collection of Greek and Roman artefacts to the museum in 1784 together with a number of other antiquities and natural history specimens. A list of donations to the museum, dated 31 January 1784, refers to the Hamilton bequest of a "Colossal Foot of an Apollo in Marble". It was one of two antiquities of Hamilton's collection drawn for him by Francesco Progenie, a pupil of Pietro Fabris, who also contributed a number of drawings of Mount Vesuvius sent by Hamilton to the Royal Society in London. Growth and change (1800–1825) Left to Right: Montagu House, Townley Gallery and Sir Robert Smirke's west wing under construction, July 1828 The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus Room, 1920s In the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. After the defeat of the French campaign in the Battle of the Nile, in 1801, the British Museum acquired more Egyptian sculptures and in 1802 King George III presented the Rosetta Stone – key to the deciphering of hieroglyphs.[23] Gifts and purchases from Henry Salt, British consul general in Egypt, beginning with the Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, laid the foundations of the collection of Egyptian Monumental Sculpture.[24] Many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the Charles Towneley collection, much of it Roman sculpture, in 1805. In 1806, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803 removed the large collection of marble sculptures from the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens and transferred them to the UK. In 1816 these masterpieces of western art were acquired by The British Museum by Act of Parliament and deposited in the museum thereafter.[25] The collections were supplemented by the Bassae frieze from Phigaleia, Greece in 1815. The Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from the widow of Claudius James Rich.[26] In 1802 a buildings committee was set up to plan for expansion of the museum, and further highlighted by the donation in 1822 of the King's Library, personal library of King George III's, comprising 65,000 volumes, 19,000 pamphlets, maps, charts and topographical drawings.[27] The neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke, was asked to draw up plans for an eastern extension to the museum "... for the reception of the Royal Library, and a Picture Gallery over it ..."[28] and put forward plans for today's quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old Montagu House was demolished and work on the King's Library Gallery began in 1823. The extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. However, following the founding of the National Gallery, London in 1824,[e] the proposed Picture Gallery was no longer needed, and the space on the upper floor was given over to the Natural history collections.[29] The first Synopsis of the British Museum was published in 1808. This described the contents of the museum, and the display of objects room by room, and updated editions were published every few years. The largest building site in Europe (1825–1850) The Grenville Library, 1875 As Sir Robert Smirke's grand neo-classical building gradually arose, the museum became a construction site. The King's Library, on the ground floor of the East Wing, was handed over in 1827, and was described as one of the finest rooms in London. Although it was not fully open to the general public until 1857, special openings were arranged during The Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1840, the museum became involved in its first overseas excavations, Charles Fellows's expedition to Xanthos, in Asia Minor, whence came remains of the tombs of the rulers of ancient Lycia, among them the Nereid and Payava monuments. In 1857, Charles Newton was to discover the 4th-century BC Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In the 1840s and 1850s the museum supported excavations in Assyria by A.H. Layard and others at sites such as Nimrud and Nineveh. Of particular interest to curators was the eventual discovery of Ashurbanipal's great library of cuneiform tablets, which helped to make the museum a focus for Assyrian studies.[30] Sir Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), a trustee of the British Museum from 1830, assembled a library of 20,240 volumes, which he left to the museum in his will. The books arrived in January 1847 in twenty-one horse-drawn vans. The only vacant space for this large library was a room originally intended for manuscripts, between the Front Entrance Hall and the Manuscript Saloon. The books remained here until the British Library moved to St Pancras in 1998. Collecting from the wider world (1850–1875) The opening of the forecourt in 1852 marked the completion of Robert Smirke's 1823 plan, but already adjustments were having to be made to cope with the unforeseen growth of the collections. Infill galleries were constructed for Assyrian sculptures and Sydney Smirke's Round Reading Room, with space for a million books, opened in 1857. Because of continued pressure on space the decision was taken to move natural history to a new building in South Kensington, which would later become the British Museum of Natural History. Roughly contemporary with the construction of the new building was the career of a man sometimes called the "second founder" of the British Museum, the Italian librarian Anthony Panizzi. Under his supervision, the British Museum Library (now part of the British Library) quintupled in size and became a well-organised institution worthy of being called a national library, the largest library in the world after the National Library of Paris.[16] The quadrangle at the centre of Smirke's design proved to be a waste of valuable space and was filled at Panizzi's request by a circular Reading Room of cast iron, designed by Smirke's brother, Sydney Smirke.[31] Until the mid-19th century, the museum's collections were relatively circumscribed but, in 1851, with the appointment to the staff of Augustus Wollaston Franks to curate the collections, the museum began for the first time to collect British and European medieval antiquities, prehistory, branching out into Asia and diversifying its holdings of ethnography. A real coup for the museum was the purchase in 1867, over French objections, of the Duke of Blacas's wide-ranging and valuable collection of antiquities. Overseas excavations continued and John Turtle Wood discovered the remains of the 4th century BC Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, another Wonder of the Ancient World.[32] Scholarship and legacies (1875–1900) The natural history collections were an integral part of the British Museum until their removal to the new British Museum of Natural History in 1887, nowadays the Natural History Museum. With the departure and the completion of the new White Wing (fronting Montague Street) in 1884, more space was available for antiquities and ethnography and the library could further expand. This was a time of innovation as electric lighting was introduced in the Reading Room and exhibition galleries.[33] The William Burges collection of armoury was bequeathed to the museum in 1881. In 1882, the museum was involved in the establishment of the independent Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) the first British body to carry out research in Egypt. A bequest from Miss Emma Turner in 1892 financed excavations in Cyprus. In 1897 the death of the great collector and curator, A. W. Franks, was followed by an immense bequest of 3,300 finger rings, 153 drinking vessels, 512 pieces of continental porcelain, 1,500 netsuke, 850 inro, over 30,000 bookplates and miscellaneous items of jewellery and plate, among them the Oxus Treasure.[34] In 1898 Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed the Waddesdon Bequest, the glittering contents from his New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor. This consisted of almost 300 pieces of objets d'art et de vertu which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass and maiolica, among them the Holy Thorn Reliquary, probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry. The collection was in the tradition of a Schatzkammer such as those formed by the Renaissance princes of Europe.[35] Baron Ferdinand's will was most specific, and failure to observe the terms would make it void, the collection should be placed in a special room to be called the Waddesdon Bequest Room separate and apart from the other contents of the Museum and thenceforth for ever thereafter, keep the same in such room or in some other room to be substituted for it.[35] These terms are still observed, and the collection occupies room 2a. New century, new building (1900–1925) Opening of The North Wing, King Edward VII's Galleries, 1914 Sir Leonard Woolley holding the excavated Sumerian Queen's Lyre, 1922 By the last years of the 19th century, The British Museum's collections had increased to the extent that its building was no longer large enough. In 1895 the trustees purchased the 69 houses surrounding the museum with the intention of demolishing them and building around the west, north and east sides of the museum. The first stage was the construction of the northern wing beginning 1906. All the while, the collections kept growing. Emil Torday collected in Central Africa, Aurel Stein in Central Asia, D.G. Hogarth, Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence excavated at Carchemish. Around this time, the American collector and philanthropist J Pierpont Morgan donated a substantial number of objects to the museum,[36] including William Greenwell's collection of prehistoric artefacts from across Europe which he had purchased for £10,000 in 1908. Morgan had also acquired a major part of Sir John Evans's coin collection, which was later sold to the museum by his son John Pierpont Morgan Junior in 1915. In 1918, because of the threat of wartime bombing, some objects were evacuated via the London Post Office Railway to Holborn, the National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth) and a country house near Malvern. On the return of antiquities from wartime storage in 1919 some objects were found to have deteriorated. A conservation laboratory was set up in May 1920 and became a permanent department in 1931. It is today the oldest in continuous existence.[37] In 1923, the British Museum welcomed over one million visitors. Disruption and reconstruction (1925–1950) New mezzanine floors were constructed and book stacks rebuilt in an attempt to cope with the flood of books. In 1931, the art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen offered funds to build a gallery for the Parthenon sculptures. Designed by the American architect John Russell Pope, it was completed in 1938. The appearance of the exhibition galleries began to change as dark Victorian reds gave way to modern pastel shades.[f] Following the retirement of George Francis Hill as Director and Principal Librarian in 1936, he was succeeded by John Forsdyke. As tensions with Nazi Germany developed and it appeared that war may be imminent Forsdyke came to the view that with the likelihood of far worse air-raids than that experienced in World War I that the museum had to make preparations to remove its most valuable items to secure locations. Following the Munich crisis Forsdyke ordered 3,300 No-Nail Boxes and stored them in the basement of Duveen Gallery. At the same time he began identifying and securing suitable locations. As a result the museum was able to quickly commence relocating selected items on 24 August 1939, (a mere day after the Home Secretary advised them to do so), to secure basements, country houses, Aldwych Underground station and the National Library of Wales.[39] Many items were relocated in early 1942 from their initial dispersal locations to a newly developed facility at Westwood Quarry in Wiltshire.[39] The evacuation was timely, for in 1940 the Duveen Gallery was severely damaged by bombing.[40] Meanwhile, prior to the war, the Nazis had sent a researcher to the British Museum for several years with the aim of "compiling an anti-Semitic history of Anglo-Jewry".[41] After the war, the museum continued to collect from all countries and all centuries: among the most spectacular additions were the 2600 BC Mesopotamian treasure from Ur, discovered during Leonard Woolley's 1922–34 excavations. Gold, silver and garnet grave goods from the Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo (1939) and late Roman silver tableware from Mildenhall, Suffolk (1946). The immediate post-war years were taken up with the return of the collections from protection and the restoration of the museum after the Blitz. Work also began on restoring the damaged Duveen Gallery. A new public face (1950–1975) The re-opened Duveen Gallery, 1980 In 1953, the museum celebrated its bicentenary. Many changes followed: the first full-time in-house designer and publications officer were appointed in 1964, the Friends organisation was set up in 1968, an Education Service established in 1970 and publishing house in 1973. In 1963, a new Act of Parliament introduced administrative reforms. It became easier to lend objects, the constitution of the board of trustees changed and the Natural History Museum became fully independent. By 1959 the Coins and Medals office suite, completely destroyed during the war, was rebuilt and re-opened, attention turned towards the gallery work with new tastes in design leading to the remodelling of Robert Smirke's Classical and Near Eastern galleries.[42] In 1962 the Duveen Gallery was finally restored and the Parthenon Sculptures were moved back into it, once again at the heart of the museum.[g] By the 1970s the museum was again expanding. More services for the public were introduced; visitor numbers soared, with the temporary exhibition "Treasures of Tutankhamun" in 1972, attracting 1,694,117 visitors, the most successful in British history. In the same year the Act of Parliament establishing the British Library was passed, separating the collection of manuscripts and printed books from the British Museum. This left the museum with antiquities; coins, medals and paper money; prints and drawings; and ethnography. A pressing problem was finding space for additions to the library which now required an extra 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) of shelving each year. The Government suggested a site at St Pancras for the new British Library but the books did not leave the museum until 1997. The Great Court emerges (1975–2000) The departure of the British Library to a new site at St Pancras, finally achieved in 1998, provided the space needed for the books. It also created the opportunity to redevelop the vacant space in Robert Smirke's 19th-century central quadrangle into the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court – the largest covered square in Europe – which opened in 2000. The ethnography collections, which had been housed in the short-lived Museum of Mankind at 6 Burlington Gardens from 1970, were returned to new purpose-built galleries in the museum in 2000. The museum again readjusted its collecting policies as interest in "modern" objects: prints, drawings, medals and the decorative arts reawakened. Ethnographical fieldwork was carried out in places as diverse as New Guinea, Madagascar, Romania, Guatemala and Indonesia and there were excavations in the Near East, Egypt, Sudan and the UK. The Weston Gallery of Roman Britain, opened in 1997, displayed a number of recently discovered hoards which demonstrated the richness of what had been considered an unimportant part of the Roman Empire. The museum turned increasingly towards private funds for buildings, acquisitions and other purposes.[44] The British Museum today Wide view of the Great Court Today the museum no longer houses collections of natural history, and the books and manuscripts it once held now form part of the independent British Library. The museum nevertheless preserves its universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and modern. The original 1753 collection has grown to over 13 million objects at the British Museum, 70 million at the Natural History Museum and 150 million at the British Library. The Round Reading Room, which was designed by the architect Sydney Smirke, opened in 1857. For almost 150 years researchers came here to consult the museum's vast library. The Reading Room closed in 1997 when the national library (the British Library) moved to a new building at St Pancras. Today it has been transformed into the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre. With the bookstacks in the central courtyard of the museum empty, the demolition for Lord Foster's glass-roofed Great Court could begin. The Great Court, opened in 2000, while undoubtedly improving circulation around the museum, was criticised for having a lack of exhibition space at a time when the museum was in serious financial difficulties and many galleries were closed to the public. At the same time the African collections that had been temporarily housed in 6 Burlington Gardens were given a new gallery in the North Wing funded by the Sainsbury family – with the donation valued at £25 million.[45] As part of its very large website, the museum has the largest online database of objects in the collection of any museum in the world, with 2,000,000 individual object entries, 650,000 of them illustrated, online at the start of 2012.[46] There is also a "Highlights" database with longer entries on over 4,000 objects, and several specialised online research catalogues and online journals (all free to access).[47] In 2013 the museum's website received 19.5 millions visits, an increase of 47% from the previous year.[48] In 2013 the museum received a record 6.7 million visitors, an increase of 20% from the previous year.[48] Popular exhibitions including "Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum" and "Ice Age Art" are credited with helping fuel the increase in visitors.[49] Plans were announced in September 2014 to recreate the entire building along with all exhibits in the video game Minecraft in conjunction with members of the public.[50] A number of films have been shot at the British Museum.[51] Governance Director The British Museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport through a three-year funding agreement. Its head is the Director of the British Museum. The British Museum was run from its inception by a 'principal librarian' (when the book collections were still part of the museum), a role that was renamed 'director and principal librarian' in 1898, and 'director' in 1973 (on the separation of the British Library).[52] Trustees A board of 25 trustees (with the director as their accounting officer for the purposes of reporting to Government) is responsible for the general management and control of the museum, in accordance with the British Museum Act 1963 and the Museums and Galleries Act 1992.[53] Prior to the 1963 Act, it was chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons. The board was formed on the museum's inception to hold its collections in trust for the nation without actually owning them themselves, and now fulfil a mainly advisory role. Trustee appointments are governed by the regulatory framework set out in the code of practice on public appointments issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.[54] Building The museum's main entrance The Greek Revival façade facing Great Russell Street is a characteristic building of Sir Robert Smirke, with 44 columns in the Ionic order 45 ft (14 m) high, closely based on those of the temple of Athena Polias at Priene in Asia Minor. The pediment over the main entrance is decorated by sculptures by Sir Richard Westmacott depicting The Progress of Civilisation, consisting of fifteen allegorical figures, installed in 1852. The construction commenced around the courtyard with the East Wing (The King's Library) in 1823–1828, followed by the North Wing in 1833–1838, which originally housed among other galleries a reading room, now the Wellcome Gallery. Work was also progressing on the northern half of the West Wing (The Egyptian Sculpture Gallery) 1826–1831, with Montagu House demolished in 1842 to make room for the final part of the West Wing, completed in 1846, and the South Wing with its great colonnade, initiated in 1843 and completed in 1847, when the Front Hall and Great Staircase were opened to the public.[55] The museum is faced with Portland stone, but the perimeter walls and other parts of the building were built using Haytor granite from Dartmoor in South Devon, transported via the unique Haytor Granite Tramway.[56] The Enlightenment Gallery at museum, which formerly held the King's Library, 2007 Proposed British Museum Extension, 1906 The Reading Room and Great Court roof, 2005 External view of the World Conservation and Exhibition Centre at the museum, 2015 In 1846 Robert Smirke was replaced as the museum's architect by his brother Sydney Smirke, whose major addition was the Round Reading Room 1854–1857; at 140 feet (43 m) in diameter it was then the second widest dome in the world, the Pantheon in Rome being slightly wider. The next major addition was the White Wing 1882–1884 added behind the eastern end of the South Front, the architect being Sir John Taylor. In 1895, Parliament gave the museum trustees a loan of £200,000 to purchase from the Duke of Bedford all 69 houses which backed onto the museum building in the five surrounding streets – Great Russell Street, Montague Street, Montague Place, Bedford Square and Bloomsbury Street.[57] The trustees planned to demolish these houses and to build around the west, north and east sides of the museum new galleries that would completely fill the block on which the museum stands. The architect Sir John James Burnet was petitioned to put forward ambitious long-term plans to extend the building on all three sides. Most of the houses in Montague Place were knocked down a few years after the sale. Of this grand plan only the Edward VII galleries in the centre of the North Front were ever constructed, these were built 1906–14 to the design by J.J. Burnet, and opened by King George V and Queen Mary in 1914. They now house the museum's collections of Prints and Drawings and Oriental Antiquities. There was not enough money to put up more new buildings, and so the houses in the other streets are nearly all still standing. The Duveen Gallery, sited to the west of the Egyptian, Greek & Assyrian sculpture galleries, was designed to house the Elgin Marbles by the American Beaux-Arts architect John Russell Pope. Although completed in 1938, it was hit by a bomb in 1940 and remained semi-derelict for 22 years, before reopening in 1962. Other areas damaged during World War II bombing included: in September 1940 two unexploded bombs hit the Edward VII galleries, the King's Library received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb, incendiaries fell on the dome of the Round Reading Room but did little damage; on the night of 10 to 11 May 1941 several incendiaries fell on the south-west corner of the museum, destroying the book stack and 150,000 books in the courtyard and the galleries around the top of the Great Staircase – this damage was not fully repaired until the early 1960s.[58] The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court is a covered square at the centre of the British Museum designed by the engineers Buro Happold and the architects Foster and Partners.[59] The Great Court opened in December 2000 and is the largest covered square in Europe. The roof is a glass and steel construction, built by an Austrian steelwork company,[60] with 1,656 uniquely shaped panes of glass. At the centre of the Great Court is the Reading Room vacated by the British Library, its functions now moved to St Pancras. The Reading Room is open to any member of the public who wishes to read there. Today, the British Museum has grown to become one of the largest museums in the world, covering an area of over 92,000 m2 (990,000 sq. ft).[3][failed verification][61] In addition to 21,600 m2 (232,000 sq. ft)[62] of on-site storage space, and 9,400 m2 (101,000 sq. ft)[62] of external storage space. Altogether the British Museum showcases on public display less than 1%[62] of its entire collection, approximately 50,000 items.[63] There are nearly one hundred galleries open to the public, representing 2 miles (3.2 km) of exhibition space, although the less popular ones have restricted opening times. However, the lack of a large temporary exhibition space has led to the £135 million World Conservation and Exhibition Centre to provide one and to concentrate all the museum's conservation facilities into one Conservation Centre. This project was announced in July 2007, with the architects Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners. It was granted planning permission in December 2009 and was completed in time for the Viking exhibition in March 2014.[64][65] Blythe House in West Kensington is used by the museum for off-site storage of small and medium-sized artefacts, and Franks House in East London is used for storage and work on the "Early Prehistory" – Palaeolithic and Mesolithic – and some other collections.[66] Departments Department of Egypt and Sudan Room 61 – The famous false fresco 'Pond in a Garden' from the Tomb of Nebamun, c. 1350 BC Room 4 – The Rosetta Stone, key to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, 196 BC The British Museum houses the world's largest[h] and most comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiquities (with over 100,000[67] pieces) outside the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. A collection of immense importance for its range and quality, it includes objects of all periods from virtually every site of importance in Egypt and the Sudan. Together, they illustrate every aspect of the cultures of the Nile Valley (including Nubia), from the Predynastic Neolithic period (c. 10,000 BC) through Coptic (Christian) times (12th century AD), and up to the present day, a time-span over 11,000 years.[68] Egyptian antiquities have formed part of the British Museum collection ever since its foundation in 1753 after receiving 160 Egyptian objects[69] from Sir Hans Sloane. After the defeat of the French forces under Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile in 1801, the Egyptian antiquities collected were confiscated by the British army and presented to the British Museum in 1803. These works, which included the famed Rosetta Stone, were the first important group of large sculptures to be acquired by the museum. Thereafter, the UK appointed Henry Salt as consul in Egypt who amassed a huge collection of antiquities, some of which were assembled and transported with great ingenuity by the famous Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni. Most of the antiquities Salt collected were purchased by the British Museum and the Musée du Louvre. By 1866 the collection consisted of some 10,000 objects. Antiquities from excavations started to come to the museum in the latter part of the 19th century as a result of the work of the Egypt Exploration Fund under the efforts of E.A. Wallis Budge. Over the years more than 11,000 objects came from this source, including pieces from Amarna, Bubastis and Deir el-Bahari. Other organisations and individuals also excavated and donated objects to the British Museum, including Flinders Petrie's Egypt Research Account and the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, as well as the University of Oxford Expedition to Kawa and Faras in Sudan. Room 4 – Colossal red granite statue of Amenhotep III, 1350 BC Active support by the museum for excavations in Egypt continued to result in important acquisitions throughout the 20th century until changes in antiquities laws in Egypt led to the suspension of policies allowing finds to be exported, although divisions still continue in Sudan. The British Museum conducted its own excavations in Egypt where it received divisions of finds, including Asyut (1907), Mostagedda and Matmar (1920s), Ashmunein (1980s) and sites in Sudan such as Soba, Kawa and the Northern Dongola Reach (1990s). The size of the Egyptian collections now stand at over 110,000 objects.[70] In autumn 2001 the eight million objects forming the museum's permanent collection were further expanded by the addition of six million objects from the Wendorf Collection of Egyptian and Sudanese Prehistory.[71] These were donated by Professor Fred Wendorf of Southern Methodist University in Texas, and comprise the entire collection of artefacts and environmental remains from his excavations at Prehistoric sites in the Sahara Desert between 1963 and 1997. Other fieldwork collections have recently come from Dietrich and Rosemarie Klemm (University of Munich) and William Adams (University of Kentucky). The seven permanent Egyptian galleries at the British Museum, which include its largest exhibition space (Room 4, for monumental sculpture), can display only 4% of its Egyptian holdings. The second-floor galleries have a selection of the museum's collection of 140 mummies and coffins, the largest outside Cairo. A high proportion of the collection comes from tombs or contexts associated with the cult of the dead, and it is these pieces, in particular the mummies, that remain among the most eagerly sought-after exhibits by visitors to the museum. Highlights of the collections include: Predynastic and Early Dynastic period (c. 6000 BC – c.2690 BC) Mummy of Ginger and five other individuals from Gebelein, (c.3400 BC) Flint knife with an ivory handle (known as the Pit-Rivers Knife), Sheikh Hamada, Egypt (c.3100 BC) The Battlefield Palette and Hunters Palette, two cosmetic palettes with complex decorative schemes, (c.3100 BC) Ivory statuette of a king, from the early temple at Abydos, Egypt (c.3000 BC) King Den's sandal label from Abydos, mid-1st Dynasty (c.2985 BC) Stela of King Peribsen, Abydos (c.2720–2710 BC) Old Kingdom (2690–2181 BC) Artefacts from the tomb of King Khasekhemwy from the 2nd Dynasty (2690 BC) Granite statue of Ankhwa, the shipbuilder, Saqqara, Egypt, 3rd Dynasty, (c.2650 BC) Several of the original casing stones from the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, (c.2570 BC) Statue of Nenkheftka from Deshasha, 4th Dynasty (2500 BC) Limestone false door of Ptahshepses, Saqqara (2440 BC) Abusir Papyri, some of the oldest papyri from ancient Egypt, Abusir (2400 BC) Wooden tomb statue of Tjeti, 5th to 6th Dynasty (about 2345–2181 BC) Middle Kingdom (2134–1690 BC) Inner and outer coffin of Sebekhetepi, Beni Hasan, (about 2125–1795 BC) Quartzite statue of Ankhrekhu, 12th Dynasty (1985–1795 BC) Limestone stela of Heqaib, Abydos, Egypt, 12th Dynasty, (1990–1750 BC) Block statue and stela of Sahathor, 12th Dynasty, reign of Amenemhat II, (1922–1878 BC) Limestone statue and stelae from the offering chapel of Inyotef, Abydos, 12th Dynasty (c.1920 BC) Stela of Samontu, Abydos, (1910 BC) Reliefs from the tomb of Djehutyhotep, Deir-el-Bersha, (1878–1855 BC) Three Granite statues of Senwosret III, Deir el-Bahri, (1850 BC) Statue of Rehuankh, Abydos, (1850–1830 BC) Colossal head of Amenemhat III, Bubastis, (1800 BC) Stela of Nebipusenwosret, Abydos, (1800 BC) Second Intermediate Period (1650–1550 BC) Coffin of King Nubkheperre Intef, Thebes, (1570 BC) The famous Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, an early example of Ancient Egyptian mathematics, Thebes, (1550 BC) New Kingdom (1549–1069 BC) Schist head of Pharaoh Hatshepsut or her successor Tuthmosis III (1480 BC) Statue of Senenmut with Princess Neferure on his lap, Karnak, (1470 BC) Block statue of Sennefer, Western Thebes, (1430 BC) Twenty Sekhmet statues from the Temple of Mut, Thebes, (1400 BC) Fragment of the beard of the Great Sphinx of Giza, (14th century BC) Pair of granite monumental lion statues from Soleb in Sudan, (1370 BC) Hoard of silver bullion from El-Amarna, (1352–1336 BC) Colossal head from a statue of Amenhotep III, (1350 BC) Colossal limestone bust of Amenhotep III, (1350 BC) Amarna Tablets, 99 out of 382 tablets found, second greatest collection in the world after the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (203 tablets), (1350 BC) Stela of Horemheb from his tomb at Saqqara, (1330 BC) London Medical Papyrus with 61 medical and magical treatments, (1300 BC) Papyrus of Ani, one of the finest extant Book of the Dead from antiquity, Thebes, (1275 BC) List of the kings of Egypt from the Temple of Ramesses II, (1250 BC) Statue of Khaemwaset, son of Ramses II, Abydos, (1250 BC) The Great Harris Papyrus, the longest surviving papyrus from antiquity, Thebes, (1200 BC) D'Orbiney Papyrus with the Tale of Two Brothers, (1200–1194 BC) Seated statue of Seti II, Temple of Mut, Karnak, (1200–1194 BC) Face from the sarcophagus of Ramses VI, Valley of the Kings, (1140 BC) Book of the Dead of Nedjmet with painted offering-vignettes and columns of Hieroglyphic text, Deir el-Bahari, (1070 BC) Third Intermediate Period (1069–664 BC) Pair of gold bracelets that belonged to General Nemareth, son of Shoshenq I, Sais, (940 BC) Colossal column capital of Hathor from Bubastis, 22nd Dynasty, (922–887 BC) Statue of the Nile god Hapy, Karnak, (c.900 BC) Mummy case and coffin of Nesperennub, Thebes, (c.800 BC) Shabaka Stone from Memphis, Egypt, 25th Dynasty (around 700 BC) Coffin of king Menkaure, Giza, (700–600 BC) One of the three statues of Amun in the form of a ram protecting King Taharqo, Kawa, (683 BC) Inner and outer coffins of the priest Hor, Deir el-Bahari, Thebes, 25th Dynasty, (about 680 BC) Granite statue of the Sphinx of Taharqo, (680 BC) Late Period (664–332 BC) Saite Sarcophagus of Sasobek, the vizier (prime minister) of the northern part of Egypt in the reign of Psammetichus I (664–610 BC) Sarcophagus lid of Sasobek, (630 BC) Bronze figure of Isis and Horus, North Saqqara, Egypt (600 BC) Sarcophagus of Hapmen, Cairo, 26th Dynasty or later, (600–300 BC) Kneeling statue of Wahibre, from near Lake Mariout, (530 BC) Sarcophagus of Ankhnesneferibre, (525 BC) Torso of Nectanebo I, (380–362 BC) Obelisks and sarcophagus of Pharaoh Nectanebo II, (360–343 BC) Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II, Alexandria, (360–343 BC) Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC) The famous Rosetta Stone, trilingual stela that unlocked the ancient Egyptian civilisation (196 BC) Naos or temple shrine of Ptolemy VIII from Philae, (150 BC) Giant sculpture of a scarab beetle, (32–30 BC) Fragment of a basalt Egyptian-style statue of Ptolemy I Soter, (305–283 BC) Mummy of Hornedjitef (inner coffin), Thebes, (3rd century BC) Wall from a chapel of Queen Shanakdakhete, Meroë, (c.150 BC) Shrine of Ptolemy VII, Philae (c.150 BC) Roman Period (30 BC-641 AD) Schist head of a young man, Alexandria, (after 30 BC) The Meriotic Hamadab Stela from the Kingdom of Kush found near the ancient site of Meroë in Sudan, 24 BC Lid of the coffin of Soter and Cleopatra from Qurna, Thebes, (early 2nd century AD) Mummy of a youth with a portrait of the deceased, Hawara, (100–200 AD) Over 30 Fayum mummy portraits from Hawara and other sites in Fayum, (40–250 AD) Bronze lamp and patera from the X-group tombs, Qasr Ibrim, (1st–6th centuries AD) Coptic wall painting of the martyrdom of saints, Wadi Sarga, (6th century AD) Room 64 - Egyptian grave containing a Gebelein predynastic mummy, late predynastic, 3400 BC Room 64 - Egyptian grave containing a Gebelein predynastic mummy, late predynastic, 3400 BC   Room 4 – Three black granite statues of the pharaoh Senusret III, c. 1850 BC Room 4 – Three black granite statues of the pharaoh Senusret III, c. 1850 BC   Room 4 – Three black granite statues of the goddess Sakhmet, c. 1400 BC Room 4 – Three black granite statues of the goddess Sakhmet, c. 1400 BC   Room 4 – Colossal statue of Amenhotep III, c. 1370 BC Room 4 – Colossal statue of Amenhotep III, c. 1370 BC   Great Court – Colossal quartzite statue of Amenhotep III, c. 1350 BC Great Court – Colossal quartzite statue of Amenhotep III, c. 1350 BC   Room 4 - Limestone statue of a husband and wife, 1300-1250 BC Room 4 - Limestone statue of a husband and wife, 1300-1250 BC   Room 63 - Gilded outer coffins from the tomb of Henutmehyt, Thebes, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, 1250 BC Room 63 - Gilded outer coffins from the tomb of Henutmehyt, Thebes, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, 1250 BC   Book of the Dead of Hunefer, sheet 5, 19th Dynasty, 1250 BC Book of the Dead of Hunefer, sheet 5, 19th Dynasty, 1250 BC   Room 4 - Ancient Egyptian bronze statue of a cat from the Late Period, about 664–332 BC Room 4 - Ancient Egyptian bronze statue of a cat from the Late Period, about 664–332 BC   Room 4 - Green siltstone head of a Pharaoh, 26th-30th Dynasty, 600-340 BC Room 4 - Green siltstone head of a Pharaoh, 26th-30th Dynasty, 600-340 BC   Great Court - Black siltstone obelisk of King Nectanebo II of Egypt, Thirtieth dynasty, about 350 BC Great Court - Black siltstone obelisk of King Nectanebo II of Egypt, Thirtieth dynasty, about 350 BC   Room 62 - Detail from the mummy case of Artemidorus the Younger, a Greek who had settled in Thebes, Egypt, during Roman times, 100-200 AD Room 62 - Detail from the mummy case of Artemidorus the Younger, a Greek who had settled in Thebes, Egypt, during Roman times, 100-200 AD Department of Greece and Rome This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "British Museum" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Room 17 – Reconstruction of the Nereid Monument, c. 390 BC Room 18 – Parthenon marbles from the Acropolis of Athens, 447 BC Room 21 – Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, mid-4th century BC The British Museum has one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections of antiquities from the Classical world, with over 100,000 objects.[72] These mostly range in date from the beginning of the Greek Bronze Age (about 3200 BC) to the establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, with the Edict of Milan under the reign of the Roman emperor Constantine I in 313 AD. Archaeology was in its infancy during the nineteenth century and many pioneering individuals began excavating sites across the Classical world, chief among them for the museum were Charles Newton, John Turtle Wood, Robert Murdoch Smith and Charles Fellows. The Greek objects originate from across the Ancient Greek world, from the mainland of Greece and the Aegean Islands, to neighbouring lands in Asia Minor and Egypt in the eastern Mediterranean and as far as the western lands of Magna Graecia that include Sicily and southern Italy. The Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean cultures are represented, and the Greek collection includes important sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens, as well as elements of two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos.[72] Beginning from the early Bronze Age, the department also houses one of the widest-ranging collections of Italic and Etruscan antiquities outside Italy, as well as extensive groups of material from Cyprus and non-Greek colonies in Lycia and Caria on Asia Minor. There is some material from the Roman Republic, but the collection's strength is in its comprehensive array of objects from across the Roman Empire, with the exception of Britain (which is the mainstay of the Department of Prehistory and Europe). The collections of ancient jewellery and bronzes, Greek vases (many from graves in southern Italy that were once part of Sir William Hamilton's and Chevalier Durand's collections), Roman glass including the famous Cameo glass Portland Vase, Roman gold glass (the second largest collection after the Vatican Museums), Roman mosaics from Carthage and Utica in North Africa that were excavated by Nathan Davis, and silver hoards from Roman Gaul (some of which were bequeathed by the philanthropist and museum trustee Richard Payne Knight), are particularly important. Cypriot antiquities are strong too and have benefited from the purchase of Sir Robert Hamilton Lang's collection as well as the bequest of Emma Turner in 1892, which funded many excavations on the island. Roman sculptures (many of which are copies of Greek originals) are particularly well represented by the Townley collection as well as residual sculptures from the famous Farnese collection. Objects from the Department of Greece and Rome are located throughout the museum, although many of the architectural monuments are to be found on the ground floor, with connecting galleries from Gallery 5 to Gallery 23. On the upper floor, there are galleries devoted to smaller material from ancient Italy, Greece, Cyprus and the Roman Empire. Highlights of the collections include: Temple of Hephaestus Marble coffer frame and coffer from the colonnade, (449–415 BC) Parthenon The Parthenon Marbles (Elgin Marbles), (447–438 BC) Propylaea Capital and column drum, (437–432 BC) Erechtheion A surviving column and architectural fittings, (420–415 BC) One of six remaining Caryatids, (415 BC) Temple of Athena Nike Surviving frieze slabs and capital, (427–424 BC) Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos Statue of Dionysos, (270 BC) Tower of the Winds Marble Corinthian capital, (50 BC) Temple of Poseidon, Sounion Fluted column base, (444–440 BC) Temple of Nemesis, Rhamnus Head from the statue of Nemesis, (430–420 BC) Temple of Bassae Twenty-three surviving blocks of the frieze from the interior of the temple, (420–400 BC) Sanctuary of Apollo at Daphni Fluted columns, column bases and ionic capitals, (399–301 BC) Temple of Athena Polias, Priene Sculptural coffers from the temple ceiling, (350–325 BC) Ionic capitals, architraves and antae, (350–325 BC) Marble torso of a charioteer, (320–300 BC) Mausoleum at Halicarnassus Two colossal free-standing figures identified as Maussollos and his wife Artemisia, (c. 350 BC) Part of an impressive horse from the chariot group adorning the summit of the Mausoleum, (c. 350 BC) The Amazonomachy frieze – A long section of relief frieze showing the battle between Greeks and Amazons, (c. 350 BC) Temple of Artemis in Ephesus One of the sculptured column bases, (340–320 BC) Part of the Ionic frieze situated above the colonnade, (330–300 BC) Knidos in Asia Minor Demeter of Knidos, (350 BC) Lion of Knidos, (350–200 BC) Xanthos in Asia Minor Lion Tomb, (550–500 BC) Harpy Tomb, (480–470 BC) Nereid Monument, partial reconstruction of a large and elaborate Lykian tomb, (390–380 BC) Tomb of Merehi, (390–350 BC) Tomb of Payava, (375–350 BC) Bilingual Decree of Pixodaros, (340 BC) Temple of Zeus, Salamis in Cyprus Marble capital with caryatid figure standing between winged bulls, (300–250 BC) Wider collection Prehistoric Greece and Italy (3300 BC – 8th century BC) Over thirty Cycladic figures from islands in the Aegean Sea, many collected by James Theodore Bent, Greece, (3300–2000 BC) A large Gaudo culture askos from Paestum, southern Italy, (2800–2400 BC) Kythnos Hoard of wood working metal tools from the island of Naxos, Greece, (2700–2200 BC) Two pottery kernos from Phylakopi in Melos, Greece (2300–2000 BC) Material from the Palace of Knossos including a huge pottery storage jar, some donated by Sir Arthur Evans, Crete, Greece, (1900–1100 BC) The Minoan gold treasure from Aegina, northern Aegean, Greece, (1850–1550 BC) Artefacts from the Psychro Cave in Crete, including two serpentine libation tables, (1700–1450 BC) Bronze Minoan Bull-leaper from Rethymnon, Crete, (1600–1450 BC) Segments of the columns and architraves from the Treasury of Atreus, Peloponnese, Greece, (1350–1250 BC) Ivory game board found at Enkomi, Cyprus, (12th century BC) Nuragic hoard of bronze artefacts found at Santa Maria in Paulis, Cagliari, Sardinia, (1100–900 BC) Elgin Amphora, highly decorated pottery vase attributed to the Dipylon Master, Athens, Greece, (8th century BC) Votive offerings from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta, (8th century BC) Etruscan (8th century BC – 1st century BC) Gold jewellery and other rich artefacts from the Castellani and Galeassi Tombs in Palestrina, central Italy, (8th–6th centuries BC) Ornate gold fibula with granulated parade of animals from the Bernardini Tomb, Cerveteri, (675–650 BC) Various objects including two small terracotta statues from the "Tomb of the five chairs" in Cerveteri (625–600 BC) Gold libation bowl from Sant'Angelo Muxaro, Sicily, (600 BC) Contents of the Isis tomb and François Tomb, Vulci, (570–560 BC) Painted terracotta plaques (the so-called Boccanera Plaques) from a tomb in Cerveteri, (560–550 BC) Decorated silver panels from Castel San Marino, near Perugia (540–520 BC) Statuette of a bronze votive figure from Pizzidimonte, near Prato, Italy (500–480 BC) Bronze helmet with inscription commemorating the Battle of Cumae, Olympia, Greece, (480 BC) Bronze votive statuettes from the Lake of the Idols, Monte Falterona, (420–400 BC) Part of a symposium set of bronze vessels from the tomb of Larth Metie, Bolsena, Italy, (400–300 BC) Exquisite gold ear-ring with female head pendant, one of a pair from Perugia, (300–200 BC) Oscan Tablet, one of the most important inscriptions in the Oscan language, (300–100 BC) Hoard of gold jewellery from Sant'Eufemia Lamezia, southern Italy, (340–330 BC) Latian bronze figure from the Sanctuary of Diana, Lake Nemi, Latium, (200–100 BC) Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa from Chiusi, (150–140 BC) Ancient Greece (8th century BC – 4th century AD) Orientalising gold jewellery from the Camirus cemetery in Rhodes, (700–600 BC) Foot from the colossal Kouros of Apollo, Delos, (600–500 BC) Group of life-size archaic statues from the Sacred Way at Didyma, western Turkey, (600–580 BC) Bronze statuette of a rider and horse from Armento, southern Italy (550 BC) Bronze head of an axe from San Sosti, southern Italy, (520 BC) Statue of a nude standing youth from Marion, Cyprus, (520–510 BC) Large terracotta sarcophagus and lid with painted scenes from Klazomenai, western Turkey, (510–480 BC) Two bronze tablets in the Locrian Greek dialect from Galaxidi, central Greece, (500–475 BC) Fragments from a large bronze equestrian statue of the Taranto Rider, southern Italy, (480–460 BC) Chatsworth Apollo Head, Tamassos, Cyprus (460 BC) Statue of recumbent bull from the Dipylon Cemetery, Athens (4th century BC) Hoard of gold jewellery from Avola, Sicily, (370–300 BC) Dedicatory Inscription by Alexander the Great from Priene in Turkey (330 BC) Head from the colossal statue of the Asclepius of Milos, Greece, (325–300 BC) Braganza Brooch, Ornamental gold fibula reflecting Celtic and Greek influences (3rd century BC) Hoard of silver patera from Èze, southeastern France, (3rd century BC) Gold tablet from an Orphic sanctuary in southern Italy (3rd–2nd centuries BC) Marble relief of the Apotheosis of Homer from Bovillae, central Italy, (221–205 BC) Bronze sculpture of a Greek poet known as the Arundel Head, western Turkey, (2nd–1st centuries BC) Remains of the Scylla monument at Bargylia, south west Anatolia, Turkey, (200–150 BC) Bronze head and hand of the statue of Aphrodite of Satala (1st century BC) Bronze statuettes from Paramythia (2nd century AD) Large statue of Europa sitting on the back of a bull from the amphitheatre at Gortyna, Crete, (100 BC) Ancient Rome (1st century BC – 4th century AD) Pair of engraved oval agate plaques depicting Livia as Diana and Octavian as Mercury, (Rome, 30–25 BC) Guildford Puteal from Corinth, Greece (30–10 BC) Bronze head of Augustus from Meroë in Sudan (27–25 BC) Cameo glass Portland Vase, the most famous glass vessel from ancient Rome, (1–25 AD) Silver Warren Cup with homoerotic scenes, found near Jerusalem, (5–15 AD) Gladius of Mainz (or "Sword of Tiberius") and Blacas Cameo, depicting Roman emperors in triumph (15 AD) Horse trappings in decorated silver-plated bronze from Xanten, Germany (1st century AD) Pair of carved fluorite cups known as the Barber Cup and Crawford Cup (100 AD) Athlete statue, "Vaison Diadumenos", from an ancient Roman city in southern France (118–138 AD) A hoard of silver votive plaques dedicated to the Roman God Jupiter Dolichenus, discovered in Heddernheim, near Frankfurt, Germany, (1st–2nd centuries AD) Discus-thrower (Discobolos)[73] and Bronze Head of Hypnos from Civitella d'Arna, Italy, (1st–2nd centuries AD) Part of a large wooden wheel for draining a copper mine in Huelva, southern Spain, (1st–2nd centuries AD) Capitals from some of the pilasters of the Pantheon, Rome, (126 AD) Colossal marble head of Faustina the Elder, wife of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius from Sardis, western Turkey, (140 AD) Marble throne from the prohedria of the Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, (140–143 AD) Hoard of jewellery from a tomb in the vicinity of Miletopolis, Turkey, (175–180 AD) Inscribed marble base of the Roman Consul Tiberius Claudius Candidus, unearthed in Tarragona, Spain (195–199 AD) Jennings Dog, a statue of a Molossian guard dog, central Italy, (2nd century AD) Segment of a decorated marble balustrade from the Colosseum, Rome, Italy, (2nd century AD) Politarch inscription from the Vardar Gate, Thessaloniki, Greece, (2nd century AD) Various silver treasures found at Arcisate, Beaurains, Boscoreale, Bursa, Chaourse, Caubiac, Chatuzange, Conimbriga, Mâcon and Revel-Tourdan (1st–3rd century AD) Votive statue of Apollo of Cyrene, Libya (2nd century AD) Uerdingen Hoard found near Düsseldorf in Germany (2nd–3rd centuries AD) The collection encompasses architectural, sculptural and epigraphic items from many other sites across the classical world including Amathus, Atripalda, Aphrodisias, Delos, Iasos, Idalion, Lindus, Kalymnos, Kerch, Rhamnous, Salamis, Sestos, Sounion, Tomis and Thessanoloki. Room 12 – A gold earring from the Aegina Treasure, Greece, 1700-1500 BC Room 12 – A gold earring from the Aegina Treasure, Greece, 1700-1500 BC   Room 18 – Parthenon statuary from the east pediment and Metopes from the south wall, Athens, Greece, 447-438 BC Room 18 – Parthenon statuary from the east pediment and Metopes from the south wall, Athens, Greece, 447-438 BC   Room 19 – Caryatid and Ionian column from the Erechtheion, Acropolis of Athens, Greece, 420-415 BC Room 19 – Caryatid and Ionian column from the Erechtheion, Acropolis of Athens, Greece, 420-415 BC   Room 20 – Tomb of Payava, Lycia, Turkey, 360 BC Room 20 – Tomb of Payava, Lycia, Turkey, 360 BC   Room 21 – Fragmentary horse from the colossal chariot group which topped the podium of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Turkey, c. 350 BC Room 21 – Fragmentary horse from the colossal chariot group which topped the podium of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Turkey, c. 350 BC   Room 22 - Gold oak wreath with a bee and two cicadas, western Turkey, c. 350-300 BC Room 22 - Gold oak wreath with a bee and two cicadas, western Turkey, c. 350-300 BC   Room 22 – Column from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Turkey, early 4th century BC Room 22 – Column from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Turkey, early 4th century BC   Room 22 - Colossal head of Asclepius wearing a metal crown (now lost), from a cult statue on Melos, Greece, 325-300 BC Room 22 - Colossal head of Asclepius wearing a metal crown (now lost), from a cult statue on Melos, Greece, 325-300 BC   Room 1 - Farnese Hermes in the Enlightenment Gallery, Italy, 1st century AD Room 1 - Farnese Hermes in the Enlightenment Gallery, Italy, 1st century AD   Room 69 - Roman gladiator helmet from Pompeii, Italy, 1st century AD Room 69 - Roman gladiator helmet from Pompeii, Italy, 1st century AD   Room 23 - The famous version of the 'Crouching Venus', Roman, c. 1st century AD Room 23 - The famous version of the 'Crouching Venus', Roman, c. 1st century AD   Room 22 – Roman marble copy of the famous 'Spinario (Boy with Thorn)', Italy, c. 1st century AD Room 22 – Roman marble copy of the famous 'Spinario (Boy with Thorn)', Italy, c. 1st century AD   Room 22 – Apollo of Cyrene (holding a lyre), Libya, c. 2nd century AD Room 22 – Apollo of Cyrene (holding a lyre), Libya, c. 2nd century AD Department of the Middle East Room 9 – Assyrian palace reliefs, Nineveh, 701–681 BC With a collection numbering some 330,000 works,[74] the British Museum possesses the world's largest and most important collection of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq. A collection of immense importance, the holdings of Assyrian sculpture, Babylonian and Sumerian antiquities are among the most comprehensive in the world with entire suites of rooms panelled in alabaster Assyrian palace reliefs from Nimrud, Nineveh and Khorsabad. The collections represent the civilisations of the ancient Near East and its adjacent areas. These cover Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria, the Holy Land and Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean from the prehistoric period and include objects from the 7th century.
  • Material: Pencil
  • Type: Drawing
  • Year of Production: 1899

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