12 ACCOUiYTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



X. — General Progress at the Museum, Bloomsbury. 



The evacuation of the Musiexiin by the Departments installed 

 in some of the galleries during the war was completed in the 

 course of the first months of 192U. The Medical Research Commit- 

 tee quitted the Sub-ground Floor of King Edward the Seventh's 

 Galleries on February 6th, and the Registry of Friendly Societies 

 completed their removal from the galleries belonging- to the 

 Departments of Prints and Drawings and Egyptian and 

 Assyrian Antiquities on March 2Dth. The work of cleaning these 

 galleries and replacing the collections in them was taken in hand 

 at once. The three Mummy Rooms were reopened to the public 

 on May 24th, the Phoenician and Himyaritic Rooms on June 21st, 

 the Fourth Egyptian Room, the exhibition gallery of Prints and 

 Drawings and half the Gallery of Ceramics and Mediaeval Col- 

 lections on July 15th, the Babylonian Room on July 31st, the 

 Students' Room of the Department of Prints and Drawings on 

 August 3rd, and the Fifth and Sixth Egyptian Rooms on De- 

 cember 6th. At the end of the year the only portions of the 

 Museum remaining unopened were two small rooms of the 

 Egyptian and Assyrian Department, and half the Ground Floor 

 Gallery in King Edward the Seventh's Galleries, in which the 

 collections of Oriental Ceramics, Glass, and a portion of the 

 Mediaeval collections were being installed. 



Sundaj^ opening of the galleries was resumed on November 7th. 



The total number of visitors to the Museum was 851,483, 

 composed of 843,803 on week-days and 7,680 on the Sundays in 

 November and December. The figure for week-days is consider- 

 ably higher than in any previous year except 1913, and is more 

 than 150,000 in excess of the total for 1919 (691,650), when, 

 however, the galleries were only gradually reopening in the 

 course of the year. On the other hand the number of readers 

 visiting the Reading Room has not yet reached the pre-war 

 standard. The total of 147,145, though an increase on the 

 130,198 of 1919, is lower than the figure for 1915, while before 

 the war, ever since the beginning of the century, the total in- 

 variably exceeded 200,000 (except when the Room was closed 

 for cleaning), and in 1913 reached 243,659. Students visiting 

 other Departments amounted to 35,229, about double the number 

 in 1919 (when, however, several of the Students' Rooms were not 

 open), and only a little less than in 1915. Had the Print Room 

 been open throughout the year the 1915 total would no doubt 

 have been exceeded. 



The parties of the Guide Lecturers were well attended. Exact 

 fio-ures cannot be given, since visitors join or leave the parties in 

 the course of the lectures, but the approximate figure is 35,670. 



The number of separate objects incorporated in the several 

 Departments during 1920 is as follows : — 



Printed Books : 



Books and Pamphlets - - . - - - 29,397 



Serials and Parts of Volumes . _ - - 83,447 

 Maps and Atlases ------ 1,812 



