NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM

National History Museum

National History Museum

Introduction

The Natural History Museum (formerly known as the British Museum of Natural History—and also more affectionately as “The BM”) has its origins with Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753). Sloane was a “gentleman collector “who gathered and amassed a sizable collection of “natural curiosities,”“antiquities, “scientific instruments, and books during his lifetime. Upon his death, he bequeathed this legacy to the nation (it must be added that, with a rather sharp piece of legal work, his will secured the necessary money from the government to do this).

The first British Museum opened in June 1753, in Montagu House, Bloomsbury, and London. Further collections were acquired either by donation or by purchase from other gentleman collectors. Important paleontological collections gained in this way include those of W. Smith (the “Father of Geology”), C. D. E. König, the Sowerby family, G. Mantell (famed for his association with Iguanodon), W. Gilbertson, and T. Davidson. The museum is also the repository for the material collected by Charles Darwin on his Beagle voyage.

The growth of the natural history collections led to a tripartite division into botany, zoology, and mineralogy and geology in 1837. Collections continued to grow during the Victorian era with many specimens from the British Empire being shipped back by expatriate naturalists. Further specimens came from the Geological Survey, which transferred all of its foreign material in 1880, and the Geological Society of London, which transferred all of its collections in 1911 (Forgan 1994, 139).

Discussion

In 1845, the museum moved to a new location in Bloomsbury. By 1856, the natural history collections had surpassed all others and a new building was sought. Sir Richard Owen (famous for establishing the name Dinosaurian) played an important and instrumental role in the design and implementation of this new building. The impressive, purpose-built, Romanesque building was moved into in 1881 at its present location in South Kensington, London. Along with this move came a restructuring in organization and the museum became the British Museum (Natural History).

The Natural History Museum opened on 18 April 1881, the Easter Monday. Some exhibits are from the famous collections of the 18th Century. The natural history collection of the famous physicist and oddities collector Sir Hans Sloane formed the basis of the museum. Sloane bequeathed his extensive collection in 1753, the British nation. Originally the original Sloane collection of part of the British Museum, where even today, especially in the rooms of the exhibition to the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th Century (Enlightenment Galleries), individual pieces can be seen from Sloane's collection. Were bequeathed to the British Museum next to the Sloane collection of other important natural history collections, they thought of their own premises. To mention by name here is the collection, the botanist Joseph Banks 1768-1771 from his trip with Captain James Cook on HMS Endeavour brought (Stearn, 1998).

The famous zoologist and paleontologist Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892), head of the natural history department of the British Museum, convinced the government that a new building for the collection was ...