Catalogue description Records of the British Museum

The act brought Sloane's collections together with that of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1586-1631) a founder of the Society of Antiquaries and with the great Harleian manuscript collection of Robert and Edward Harley, earls of Oxford, (1661-1724 and 1689-1741) which were bought with funds raised by a national lottery.

The lottery also provided funding for the establishment of the museum itself. The bequest of a Major Edwards funded the housing and extending of the Cotton Library of books. In 1755 these founding collections were given a permanent home in Montagu House, Bloomsbury.

In 1757 the Royal Library, dating back to 1471, was added which brought with it the right to a copy of every printed work registered at Stationer's Hall, under Licensing Acts dating back to 1662 and the Copyright Act 1709.

In 1758 the museum's administration was arranged in three departments, those of manuscripts, printed books and natural and artificial productions. In 1761 its first guide book was published.

During the nineteenth century, the growth of the museum resulted in the formation of a succession of different departments. Between 1880 and 1883 the natural history departments moved to a new building in South Kensington but remained under the administration of the same board of trustees until 1963. From 1827 many collections moved from old Montagu House into new buildings on the same site. In 1857 the new circular reading room was opened. Further galleries opened in the 1860s and in 1884 the 'White Wing' was opened.

The Zoological Society of London transferred its museum to the British Museum in 1855 and in 1897 a former keeper, Augustus Franks (1826-1897), bequeathed his own collection, including the Treasure of the Oxus, to his department.

The first major development of the twentieth century was the opening of the King Edward VII galleries by George V in 1914.

During the 1930s the State Paper Room for parliamentary papers opened.

During the 1950s and 60s the museum recovered from the effects of war damage culminating in the opening of the Duveen gallery in 1962. In 1963 a new British Museum Act dissolved the old Board of Trustees putting a simpler and more democratic structure in its place.

The Report of the Trustees of the British Museum for the period 1939 to 1966 divided the functions of the museum into three: i) it was the national library of books; ii) it was the national museum of archaeology 'recording and illustrating the ancient cultures of the world' and iii) it contained a collection of works of art in all media except for painting, dating from primitive times to the present day.

In July 1973 the museum's library departments separated to form part of the new British Library, according to the recommendations of the Dainton Committee on National Libraries (1969) as modified in a white paper (Cmnd. 4572) of 1971. In 1973 the Trustees' Committees, which formerly followed departmental divisions, were recast along functional lines.

A Department of Japanese Antiquities was created in 1987 by separating the Japanese collections from those of the Oriental Antiquities Department.

Public services of the museum in 1975 fell into four separate departments: the design office, education service, information service and photographic service. The design office information service and education service were later amalgamated, and from 1973 publications were the responsibility of British Museum Publications Ltd. The photographic service was transferred to the Conservation Department in 1976 and to the Central Administration in 1979.