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arrangement of the Museum building at large, at the date Book III,

of the erection of the new Reading-Room.

Chap. III.
HISTORY

OF THE

MUSEUM UNDER SIR A. PANIZZI.

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I. GENERAL BLOCK-PLAN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
AS IT WAS IN 1857.

MONTAGUE

STREET.

The shaded part of the building itself shows the portions allotted to the Library. The unshaded part is assigned, on the ground floor, to the Department of Antiquities, and (speaking generally) on the floor above-in common with

BLOCK-PLAN
OF MUSEUM
(1857), DIS-
TINGUISH-
ING THE

LIBRARIES

FROM THE GALLERIES

OF ANTI

QUITIES, &c.

BOOK III, Chap. III. HISTORY

OF THE MUSEUM UNDER SIR

A. PANIZZI.

the upper floors of the Library part-to the Departments of Natural History. The 'Print Room' is shown on the ground-plan between the Elgin Gallery and the northwestern extremity of the Department of Printed Books.

The next illustration shows, in detail, the ground-plan of the new Reading-Room and of the adjacent bookgalleries:

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II. GROUND-PLAN OF THE NEW OR PANIZZI' READING-ROOM,

AND OF THE ADJACENT GALLERIES, 1857.

-to the De

llery and th

of Printed &

ail, the

the a

The general appearance of the interior of the Reading- BOOK III, be shown thus :

Room

may

Chap. III.
HISTORY
OF THE

MUSEUM
UNDER SIR

A. PANIZZI.

[graphic]

III. INTERIOR VIEW OF THE NEW READING-ROOM, 1857.

Воок ІІІ, Chap. III. HISTORY

OF THE MUSEUM UNDER SIR A. PANIZZI.

PARLIA

MENTARY
INQUIRY
INTO PRO-

POSED EN-
LARGEMENT

MUSEUM

IN 1860.

Of course, the improvements thus effected did but solve a portion of the difficulty felt, long before 1857, in accommodating the National Collections upon any adequate scale, which should provide alike for present claims and for future extension. This more effectual provision became one of the most pressing questions with which both the Trustees and their officers had now to deal. During the whole term of Sir A. PANIZZI's Principal-Librarianship this building question increased in gravity and urgency, from year to year. Both the Trustees and the PrincipalLibrarian were intent upon its solution. But the latter was enforced, by failing health, to quit office, leaving the matter still unsolved.

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Most of the little information on this part of the subject which, within my present limits, it will be practicable for me to offer to the reader, belongs, properly, to a subsequent OF BRITISH chapter. But some brief notice must be given here of the important inquiries, 'how far, and in what way, it may desirable to find increased space for the extension and arrangement of the various Collections of the British Museum, and the best means of rendering them available for the promotion of Science and Art,' which were made, between the months of May and August of 1860, by a Select Committee of the House of Commons.

The first question to be answered by the Committee of 1860 was this: Is it expedient, or not, that the NaturalHistory Collections should be removed from Bloomsbury, make room for the inevitable growth of the Collections of Antiquities?

After an elaborate inquiry, spreading over three months, the Committee reported thus: The witnesses examined have, almost unanimously, testified to the preference over the other Collections, with which the Natural-His

Chap. III.

OF THE

MUSEUM

A. PANIZZI.

THE

SELECT

OF THE

COMMONS,

tory Collections are viewed by the ordinary and most Book III, numerous frequenters of the Museum. This preference is HISTORY easily accounted for; the objects exhibited, especially the birds, from the beauty of their plumage, are calculated to UNDER SIR attract and amuse the spectators. The eye has been accustomed in many instances to the living specimens in the Zoological Gardens, and cheap publications and prints have COMMITTEE rendered their forms more or less familiar. It is, indeed, HOUSE OF easily intelligible that, while for the full appreciation of 1860. works of archæological interest and artistic excellence a special education must be necessary, the works of Nature may be studied with interest and instruction by all persons of ordinary intelligence. It appears, from evidence, that many of the middle classes are in the habit of forming collections in various branches of Natural History, and that many, even the working classes, employ their holidays in the study of botany or geology, or in the collection of insects obtained in the neighbourhood of London; that they refer to the British Museum, in order to ascertain the proper classification of the specimens thus obtained, and that want of leisure alone restrains the further increase of this class of visitors. Your Committee, in order to confirm their view of the peculiar popularity of the Natural-History Collections, beg to refer to a return from the PrincipalLibrarian, which shows the number of visitors in the several public portions of the Museum, at the same hour of the day, during fifteen open days, from the fifteenth of June to the eleventh of July, 1860. From this it appears that two thousand five hundred and fifty-seven persons were in the Galleries of Antiquities at the given hour, and one thousand and fifty-six in the King's Library and MSS. Rooms, while three thousand three hundred and seventy-eight were in the Natural-History Galleries; showing an excess of two

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