BEITISH MUSEtJM. 



GENERAL PROGRESS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 

 BLOOMSBURY. 



The total number of visitors to the Museum again showed a slight 

 rise, the figures being 1,191,758 as against 1,181,617 in 1928. The 

 greater part of this increase was no doubt due to the longer hours of 

 opening on Sunday afternoons, which came into force in October, 1928. 

 As compared with 1927 (the last complete year in which the shorter 

 hours were in force) the Sunday attendances showed an advance of just 

 over 19,000. In general, the attendances were less in the first half of 

 the year and more in the second half ; August, in particular, with a 

 total of 161,697 showed the highest monthly total on record. 



The visits of students to particular departments showed a slight falling 

 off from the high total of 1928 (272,352 as compared with 276,890). 

 Reading Room attendances were less by 1,000. 



The number of volumes supplied to readers during the year (exclusive 

 of those on the open shelves of the Reading Room) was 1,433,411, about 

 70,000 less than in 1928. The number of Readers was 214,375, an 

 average of 707 daily. Readers admitted to the Hendon Repository to 

 consult newspapers which could not conveniently be sent to the Museum 

 amounted to 503. 



The lectures of the Official Guide-Lecturers were attended by 

 approximately 34,900 persons. 



The pressure on the photographic studio continues. There is a 

 greatly increasing demand for photostat reproductions of whole volumes 

 or large portions of them, and single prints are constantly required for 

 departmental purposes, for exchange, or for the assistance of foreign 

 scholars. The number of volumes issued for photographic purposes by 

 the Departments of Printed Books and MSS. was 4,839 ; but this gives 

 no indication of the number of negatives taken or of photostat repro- 

 ductions. In addition, 2,334 prints and drawings were photographed, 

 and 3,918 antiquities, while 756 electrotypes and 3,825 casts were made 

 from coins. It is evident that an enlarged studio and staff could be 

 profitably employed ; but the extension of the studio offers serious 

 structural difficulties. 



Temporary exhibitions in the galleries during the year included the 

 discoveries of the previous season at Ur, which for the second time in- 

 cluded large numbers of gold objects from royal tombs of the fourth 

 millennium B.C. ; drawings by Rembrandt and prints of the Dutch 

 School, to coincide with the Dutch Exhibition at Burlington House ; 

 prehistoric Egyptian antiquities from the excavations of Mr. Guy 

 Brunton ; modern fine j)rinting, both British and foreign ; British 

 drawings and etchings of the 19th century ; and Japanese screens and 

 Lidian paintings. 



The Royal Commission on National Museums and Galleries completed 

 its labours during the year, and issued its Final Report in two parts, the 

 second of which appeared a few weeks after the end of the year. Some 

 of the recommendations affecting the Museum have already been put 



