14 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The visitors on Sundays amounted to 63,062, but this figure 

 is lower than has been customary in recent years. 



The number of visits by readers to the Reading Room 

 showed an advance of over 7,000 on the figures for 1912, which 

 were themselves higher than any previously recorded. The 

 precise figures were 243,659, as against 236,643 in 1912, and 

 the daily average 804, as compared with 778. The total 

 number of volumes supplied was i;.542,701, exclusive of those 

 on the shelves in the Reading Room to which readers have free 

 access. In the Newspaper Room the attendance again shows a 

 slight decline, the total number of visits being 17,938, as against 

 18,450, and the number of volumes used 67,568, as against 

 69,340. The number of volumes of country newspapers brought 

 up from the repository at Hendon was 2,370, as compared with 

 2,642 in 1912. 



The visits of students to other Departments of the Museum 

 show a slight decrease, the total being 37,688, as compared with 

 38,698 in 1912. This, however, is accounted for by the fact 

 that the Department of Prints and Drawings (the most largely 

 frequented after the Department of Manuscripts) was closed for 

 the last four months of the year, during the removal of the 

 collections to the new wing. Its figures are consequently lower 

 by about 2,400 than the average for the five preceding years. 



During the year the main structure of the Extension Build- 

 ing was completed, and it was formally handed over by the 

 First Commissioner of Works to the Trustees of the British 

 Museum in October. Throughout the year the work of 

 supplying the fittings was in full progress, and by the 

 close of the year the main contracts were practically com- 

 pleted and the transfer of the collections had begun. His 

 Majesty the King having been graciously pleased to fix provi- 

 sionally a date in May 1914 for the opening of the building, it 

 was hoped that by that date bhe Department of Prints and 

 Drawings would be entirely installed in its new quarters, and 

 the Stein Collection displayed in the lower public gallery. The 

 preparation of the new Students' Room and studies for the 

 Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities was also in 

 progress. 



No great change has been made in the exhibition galleries 

 during the year. The exhibition of drawings by European 

 artists acquired during the years 1904-1912 was closed in conse- 

 quence of the transfer of the Department to its new quarters. 

 A temporary exhibition of medical MSS. was prepared in 

 connection with the meeting of the International Medical 

 Congress in London in August. Minor rearrangements were 

 made in the Departments of Greek and Roman Antiquities and 

 of British and Mediaeval Antiquities, the most important being 

 that involved in the display of the Barwell Bequest of enamels 

 mentioned below. 



The lectures of the Official Guide continued to be popular, 

 the numbers attending them being sometimes embarrassingly 

 large. It is estimated that about 23,000 persons accompanied 

 his tours in the course of the year. 



