How did the British Museum get its stuff?

The British Museum has come under some major criticism for holding onto objects that it collected in, well… not the best way. But how does the Museum present this issue in its own galleries? Let's make a visit to the Enlightenment Gallery and find out! Featuring a museum cafe review, my crazy hair and a quick TikTok.

Hi everyone and welcome to the first episode of Museum Monday where we visit our favourite museums and talk about our favourite artefacts.

[00:48] Augustus Butler, 'The British Museum', lithograph, 1853, British Museum, 1880,1113.4426, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1880-1113-4426

[00:56] Domenico Remps, Cabinet of Curiosities (c. 1690), https://www.sothebysinstitute.com/news-and-events/news/cabinets-of-curiosities-and-the-origin-of-collecting

[01:02] Reddit, British Trade Routes: 1750-1800 by ship logs [1127x544], https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/2una6v/british_trade_routes_17501800_by_ship_logs/

[1:26] George Scharf, 'The Townley Gallery and the erecting of the new gallery', drawing, 1828, 1862,0614.626, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1862-0614-626

[1:34] Francesca Hillier, 'Montagu House: the first British Museum', British Museum Blog, 23 Jun 2017, https://blog.britishmuseum.org/montagu-house-the-first-british-museum/

[2:10] Enlightenment, British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/enlightenment

[3:07] Jeremy Coote, 'Gallery Reviews', Journal of Museum Ethnography, no. 19, Museum Ethnographers Group, 2007, 135–41

[4:54] Bristol 24/7, 'Colston's statue is pushed into Bristol's docks', YouTube video, 7 Jun 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-b9h2PaXHU

[10:20] David Wilson, 'National museums and international museums', European Review, 1 no. 3 (1993), 273-278

[11:11] Neil MacGregor, 'The whole world in our hands', Guardian, 24 Jun 2004, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/jul/24/heritage.art

[11:45] Declaration of the Importance and Value of Universal Museums, British Museum, London, 2003

[12:26] David Anderson, 'Our enlightenment', Nordisk Museologi, 2 (2004) 119–128

[12:50] Felicity Bodenstein, 'Making the Museum Historical in the Twenty-First Century' in Historisierung Begriff – Geschichte – Praxisfelder, edited by Unter Mitarbeit von Stefan Kühnen und Marc Weilan (J. B. Metzler Verlag: 2016), pp. 250-270

[13:17] George Abungu, 'The Universal Museum: a Special Case?', ICOM News, no. 1, Paris, 2004