Could certainly be that…!

Oh! That must be before my time…I haven’t heard of it! But I found this on Cracherode in a scrapbook and haven’t been able to get to the bottom of what it actually is…!

A few rooms were named after key people - like the Cracherode Room and the Banksian!

Love that! We can really trace the history of the Museum through how the galleries were arranged over the years…

Today would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday. Her Majesty visited the British Museum more than 20 times, including to open the Tutankhamun exhibition in 1972. Happy Birthday to her Royal
Highness. #britishmuseum #archives #otd #QueenElizabethII

There are lots of plans in the British Museum archive including these, from a guidebook in 1961, a from a design plan for the new building in 1838, & from a suggested design by Charles Barry for the new reading room in the 1850s. #Archive30 #ArchivePlan #britishmuseum #archives

No, it’s Frederick York! I have my doubts about the dodo image though - could be York or could be Fenton…!

It’s 145 years this April since the natural history collections moved from British Museum to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. Photographed in Bloomsbury in 1875, it took 90 days to move it out by horse & cart! Now a separate institution , happy birthday NHM! #britishmuseum #archives

#Archive30 #ArchivePresent Donations reported to the Museum’s Trustees were recorded in the Book of Presents from its foundation in 1753 & here is the Museum with a presentation bow to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2003. #britishmuseum #archives

#Archive30 #ArchiveStorage This is the magnificent new storage at the #BritishMuseum facility BM_ARC in Reading which houses the Museum’s archaeological assemblages & associated archive. #archives

#Archive30 #ArchiveConservation Here is an image from the restoration & conservation of the Round Reading Room ceiling, part of the Great Court millennium project, & an original design drawing for the windows by Sydney Smirke from 1856. #britishmuseum #archives

#Archive30 #UnusualArchives This is the childhood autograph book of Dame Kathleen Kenyon from c.1918. She was an eminent archaeologist, Museum trustee & had lived at the Museum when her father was Director. It’s full of notes & sketches, some of which are quite unusual! #britishmuseum #archives

#Archive30 #ColourfulArchive These lovely coloured pages of hand printed & embossed paper are from Lady Banks’s Dairy Book, her study of her collection of china kept in her dairy at Spring Grove. #britishmuseum #archives #arascot

#Archive30 #SomethingBig This is the biggest item in the #britishmuseum archive. It’s a phased site plan for an archaeological excavation at Mucking in Essex from the 1970s. Staff feet in the image for scale! #archives

Catching up on #archive30 with #ArchiveAnimals. Here are the stuffed animals on display on the staircase of Montagu House in 1845 & the natural history galleries in the new building, photographed in 1875. #britishmuseum #archives

A little behind on #archive30 but this pamphlet from the Frederic Kenyon archive on the game of #football at Winchester College in 1876 is an early account of the rules of the game & is a great entry for #sportarchives #britishmuseum #archives

Love this decorative #britishmuseum fire bucket. Made of leather, it was part of the Museum’s fire protection (with its own firemen) in Montagu House & on view here in the front hall. We have a few buckets in the collection but this is the oldest. #archives #exploreyourarchive #londonfirebrigade

This is the recently conserved 1753 foundation deed of the British Museum, where Hans Sloane’s executors vest his collection into the hands of the Trustees. It’s now safe to be viewed & exhibited after being permanently folded since the 1750s. Harwell have done a great job! #britishmuseum #archives

Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst requested a reader’s ticket for the #britishmuseum reading room in 1908 to study women’s employment. In 1914 the Suffragettes committed an ‘outrage’ in the Museum & women’s entry was then restricted temporarily by the Trustees. #internationalwomensday #archives

#britishmuseum #archive holds very many references to women: the earliest recorded female visitors in 1762, Angelica Kaufmann paid to paint on Derby china in the 1790s, an 1857 photo, Beatrix Potter & women employed after the law for Civil Servants changed in 1921. #internationalwomensday #women

When #britishmuseum 1st opened visitors applied to the Principal Librarian for tickets to be guided around. By 1801, the PL thought the task too onerous & an attendant was employed to take it on. John Thompson was the 1st official museum guide & used a manual to assist him in his role. #archives

On World Book Day, where better to celebrate than the glorious Round Reading Room of the British Museum! Here’s a design image from the Illustrated London News in the 1850s, a photo by William Lake Price in 1855 & Smirke’s design for the windows. #worldbookday #britishmuseum #archives

In celebration of the Year of the Horse, here are some lovely horse images from the @BritishMuseum archive: Charles Townley’s archive on the Ribchester Hoard, & a slip from a registration catalogue of a Japanese horse figurine. #britishmuseum #archives #yearofthehorse

Born #OTD in 1812, #CharlesDickens visited the reading room of the #britishmuseum on 11th October 1839. Here is the page from the register showing his attendance. #archives

The Museum was founded in 1753 & it took quite a time to find a home for it and then turn it into a museum! They were planning for public opening well before it actually opened, & some visitors were admitted before the official opening date…

The #BritishMuseum opened to the public for the 1st time #OTD in 1759. Happy 267th anniversary! Here is the Trustees’ Minute where the date was agreed & the design for the tickets needed to get in. #archives

Sir Hans Sloane died #OTD in 1753. His collection became the foundation of the #BritishMuseum, as well as the #BritishLibrary & the #NHM in #London. Here is the Deed of Foundation & an engraving of the Museum’s 1st home, Montagu House. #archives

#OTD in 1863 the London Underground 1st opened to the public. The #BritishMuseum had its own station in High Holborn from 1900-33 & used the tunnels at Aldwych for storage in WWII. #londontransportmuseum #archives #londonunderground

It doesn’t snow in London very often but the Museum looks glorious when it does! #archiveadventcalendar #WinterWonderland #britishmuseum #archives

Love this photo of a Christmas tree in the Front Hall of the Museum from a few years ago! #archiveadventcalendar #festivetraditions #britishmuseum #archives