12 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



X. General Progress at the Museum, Bloomsbury. 



The year 1919 saw the return to the Museum o£ all objects 

 removed from it to places of safety during the war, and the 

 restoration of the greater part of the galleries to their normal state. 

 But for the continued occupation of parts of the Museum by the 

 Government Departments housed there during the war, the 

 restoration could have been completed within the year. All the 

 collections deposited at Malvern and Aberystwyth, and in the Tube 

 Station under the West Central Post Office, had been brought back 

 before the end of March. The re-opening of exhibition galleries 

 continued progressively up to July, by which time all had been 

 restored to the public except those that were still occupied by the 

 Registry of Friendly Societies. But (in spite of promises of pre- 

 ferential treatment of Museums) it was not until the end of 

 September that the effects of German Prisoners of War were 

 removed from the basement of the new wing, while the Medical 

 Research Committee were still in occupation of the sub-ground 

 floor of the new wing, and the Registry of Friendly Societies was 

 still in the Department of Prints and Drawings and a great part of 

 the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the end 

 of the year. 



The re-opening of the galleries was at once appreciated by the 

 public. Visitors to the Museum on week-days (the Museum still 

 remaining closed on Sundays) amounted to 691,650 in 1919, as 

 compared with 680,000 in 1915, the last complete year : a 

 satisfactory total, though far below the 884,028 of 1913. Visitors 

 to the Reading Room were 130,198 as compared with 114,543 in 

 the previous year, and 243,659 in 1913 ; while the students admitted 

 to the Departmental working rooms amounted to 16,197, as compared 

 with just under 7,000 in 1918 and just under 37,800 in 1913. 

 Visitors to the Newspaper Room were 10,407, a total about 480 below 

 that of 1918, and 7,500 below that of 1913. When the Students' 

 Room of the Prints Department is once again open, considerable 

 additions may be expected to the figures of visitors. 



The number of separate objects incorporated in the several 

 Departments during 1919 is as follows : — 



Printed Books : 



Books and Pamphlets ----- 23,932 



Serials and Parts of Volumes _ - - _ 71,403 



Maps and Atlases - - - - - - 1,610 



Music - . - - - - - - - 9,506 



Newspapers (single numbers) - - - - 199,107 



Miscellaneous ------- 1,649 



Manuscripts and Seals - - - - - - 45 ii 



