The British Museum

The British museum is the national museum of England. The museum serves as a place of many strides in science and the humanities, including archaeology and biology. The museum was first established by an act in Parliament in 1753 (The British Museum). The museum also served as a center of many cultures around the world, but was the first museum that drew the question of ethical consumption of art from countries without explicit permission. 

The museum served as the resting place of the Elgin Marbles starting in 1812 and still being held there to this day. The marbles showed a piqued interest in the arts in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This issued the literary era of neoclassicism, along with new genres such as the novel. The architecture of the museum is inspired by the Greek Revival of England. The museum was open to many ideas of artists and authors, allowing various artists of many varying opinions to add their works to the museum. This includes authors such as Karl Marx and Virginia Woolf (Encyclopedia Britannica.) 

 

British Museum. The British Museum, 2023, https://editions.covecollective.org/node/add/place?field_parent_map=1668...

"The British Museum." Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/British-Museum. 

 

Parent Map

Map: Thiel College ENG 312 SP23

Coordinates

Latitude: 51.519381099492
Longitude: -0.127286911011

Timeline of Events Associated with The British Museum

Date Event Manage
circa. 1812

Elgin Marbles Brought to England

In 1812, the Elgin Marbles- Ancient Greek sculptures of marble from Athens- were transported from Greece to England. These statues were permitted to leave Greece because of an agreement between England and the Ottoman Empire, which had recently been growing in power. The event had many questioning the ethics of collecting art from other countries without explicit permission of its original ownership. Though this is modernly seen as a negative event, it marked a shift in cultural interest throughout England, a characteristic present in the Regency and Victorian era. This deepend interest in the arts caused the neoclassicism movement in England (The British Museum.) 

With a new found appreciation of classic art, a new genre, the novel, was also growing in popularity. The neoclassicist movement, though restrictive, allowed the novel genre to grow and even thrive. Examples of this genre include Sense and Sensability by Jane Austen and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Elgin Marbles.)

 

 

 

 

 

The room containing the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum.

 

"Elgin Marbles." Encyclopedia Britannica, britannica.com/topic/Elgin-Marbles. 

"The Parthenon Sculptures." The British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/contested-ob...