ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



VII. — Geneiial Administkation. 



The first step in the actual removal of the Natural History portion of the Museum 

 Collections has been taken. In the last week of the month of July the transport of the 

 contents of the Mineralogical Department to the new building in Cromwell-road, South 

 Kensington, was commenced, and by the end of September the three departments of 

 Mineralogy, Geology, and Botany were safely placed in their new repository — ^designated 

 the British Museum (Natural History); some part of the Botanical Collections only 

 being temporarily kept back from want of necessary cases to receive them. 



The Minerals being moved in their cases were speedily made ready for exhibition ; but 

 it was otherwise with the Fossils and the Botanical specimens. In the old building the 

 Fossils had been provided with small exhibition space, and a complete set of cases had 

 to be supplied for them in the new Museum. There have been delays in furnishing 

 these with their internal fittings, and the arrangement of the specimens could not at 

 once be carried out. Similar difficulties made it impossible to prepare immediately the 

 Botanical collections for exhibition. Every effort, however, is being made to press on 

 the work of arrangement in all the galleries occupied by the three departments. The 

 collections have been from an early period accessible to students. The building was 

 opened to the public on the 18th of April 1881. 



The space vacated by the departments transferred to the new Museum, consisting of 

 the Northern Gallery on the first-floor and four rooms on the front first-floor, is now 

 occupied partly by the departments of Antiquities and partly by the Zoological depart- 

 ment. The sarcophagi and other objects of Etruscan antiquity have been placed in one 

 of the rooms in the Northern Gallery. Two other rooms will receive the Mummy cases 

 and the smaller objects of the Egyptian collection, removed from their previous site in 

 order to make room for a further display of Fictile Vases and Greek and Roman 

 Antiquities. Two rooms have been filled with Zoological collections, previously placed 

 in the Entomological room and in spaces in the basement. 



The rooms formerly occupied by the Botanical Department on the front first-floor are 

 assigned to the department of British and Medieval Antiquities. 



The former Entomological room is temporarily occupied by the department of Prints 

 and Drawings, as an addition to its previous space, which will be encroached upon by 

 the Sculpture Gallery about to be erected between the Elgin Room and the Assyrian 

 Gallery. The extreme eastern room of the North Gallery has been fitted with a 

 refreshment bar. 



The remaining part of the sheds, the first portion of which was erected in the year 

 1857 within the portico of the Museum for the reception of the sculptured marbles from 

 Halicarnassus, has been removed. 



The series of sculptures in relief from the Amaravati Tope and other antiquities, 

 formerly in the Indian Museum at South Kensington and lately received from the 

 Secretary of State and Council of India, have been placed for exhibition in the hall and 

 on the great staircase. The sculptures in relief have been fixed in glazed frames attached 

 to the walls. 



Selections from the Crace collection of drawings and prints, illustrating London 

 topography, have been temporarily exhibited in the King's Library. 



The moulds taken for casting purposes from the ancient sculpture and from palaBon- 

 tological specimens, which had been stored in a building at a distance from the Museum, 

 have been removed to rooms in the basement of the Museum ; and a Formatore has been 

 engaged to superintend castings, and to keep the moulds in good preservation. 



Duplicate specimens from the Zoological collections, set apart during the process of 

 arrangement, have been presented to the Sheffield, Maidstone, Scarborough, Dublin, 

 Calcutta, and South Kensington Museums, and to the Oxford Institute. 



Provision has been made in the Estimates for the current ytar for supplying a limited 

 number of jiublic institutions in the United Kingdom with electrotype copies of Coins, 

 and copies of Drawings and Engravings taken by a photographic printing process ; the 

 object being to contribute to the formation of collections of such works in the principal 

 centres of population throughout the kingdom, as a means of education. 



The printing of description-titles of newly acquired books, for insertion in the General 

 Catalogue, has been carried out during the year on the plan originally designed ; and 

 the scheme of printing, in resj)ect to the Catalogue of the Library, has been further 

 extended, to include volumes which have become so filled with entries as to necessitate 

 their being broken up and the title-slips relaid. The contents of such volumes will 

 henceforward be printed in a form to range with the rest of the Catalogue, and with 

 vacant space to receive additional titles of books subsequently acquired. Headings of 

 special interest, whether of subjects or authors, such as Academies, Bible, Liturgies, 

 Periodicals, Shakespeare, &c., will be printed separately and offered for general 

 purchase. 



The Electric Light has been successfully used in the Reading Room until seven o'clock 

 in the evening through the darker months, from the earlier part of October, 



With a view to expediting the service of the Reading Room, by bringing in close 

 0.65. A 4 connection 



