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A Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the British Museum (bloomsbury)
A Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the British Museum - bloomsbury Author:British Museum Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: pediment, representing the Progress of Civilization, were executed by Sir Richard Westmacott. As time went on it was found necessary to make addi- Reading ... more ». Room tions to the new buildings, and in 1857 the present magnificent Reading Room, with its surrounding galleries for books, was erected in the central quadrangle by Mr. Sidney Smirke, from designs suggested by the late Sir Anthony Panizzi, when he was Keeper of the department of Printed Books. By this addition provision was made for the extension of the Library for many years ; but the archaeological and natural history collections had much outgrown the spaces allotted to them, and, after much deliberation, it was eventually determined to provide a separate building for the Natural History. The collections were transferred to the new Museum in Cromwell Road, South Kensington, in the years 1880-1883. Notwithstanding the considerable gain of space obtained by this removal, there still was urgent need of further accommodation for some of the departments ; and this was happily met by means of a large bequest from Mr. William White, who died in 1823, to accrue on the death of his widow. This occurred in the year 1879; and from the funds then become available—£65,411—a new gallery was built for the Mausoleum marbles, and an entire new wing erected on the south- white east side of the Museum, affording accommodation for the department of Prints and Drawings ; a reading room and storage space for newspapers and parliamentary papers ; two fine exhibition galleries; and working rooms for the department of Manuscripts, with additional space for its collections. Of the several departments which constitute the present original Museum some have been only gradually developed. Origi- ments nally there were only three, viz.:...« less