ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



VII. — General Administration. 



The transference of the Natural History collections to the New Building in Cromwell- 

 road, South Kensington, has not been continued during the year 1881. The Department 

 of Zoology, which still remains at Bloomsbury, is of an extent fully equal to the united 

 Departments of Geology, Mineralogy, and Botany, which were removed in the year 1880, 

 and it is a work of time to provide the new cases required for the specimens. It is considered 

 unadvisable to move any part of the Zoological collections until the whole of these fittings 

 are prepared. Rapid progress is being made with them, and it is hoped the galleries may 

 be completely furnished and made ready to receive the bulk of the collections by the 

 autumn of the present year. But for one important portion of them — the specimens pre- 

 served in spirit — a distinct building sepai-ated from the main edifice has yet to be erected, 

 and it is doubtful whether this can be effected before the setting in of the winter. These 

 specimens are so essential a part of other collections that to separate them by leaving them 

 at Bloomsbury, after removal of the general department, would be to render it impossible 

 to make use of either portion for scientific study. It is doubtful therefore whether the 

 removal of the Zoological collections can be effected before the spring of 1883. 



The Museum in Cromwell-road has been opened daily during the year. Three of the 

 side galleries in the Department of Geology have received their necessary fittings, and 

 specimens have been arranged and exhibited in them. A siiacious room in the Depart- 

 ment of Mineralogy has been fitted for the exhibition of Meteorites, Crystals, Rock-speci- 

 mens and larger minerals, which are now placed there. 



The arrangement of Botanical specimens for exhibition has been in part completed, and 

 the public admitted to the gallery. Unforeseen difficulties In adapting the show cases to 

 their purposes have had to be overcome ; but the work of arrangement is being steadily 

 proceeded with. A gallery has been fitted for the reception of a reference library of 

 Natural History works, which is in course of formation for the use of the Departments. 



In the Museum at Bloomsbury a new gallery, measuring 153 feet by 40 feet, has been 

 erected, as an addition to the depai-tment of Greek and Roman antiquities, the cost beino- 

 defrayed from the funds bequeathed by the late Mr. William White. The exhibition 

 space afforded by it will give the means of more efficient and instructive exhibition of a 

 portion of the larger sculpture. 



The arrangement of the mummy-cases and smaller Egyptian Antiquities in two sections 

 of the Northern Gallery, vacated by the Mineral collections, has been completed. 



In the rooms lately applied to the exhibition of Botanical specimens, Roman Antiquities 

 of Britain and the Anglo-Saxon collection are being arranged for exhibition. 



Selections from the collection of Drawings of British Birds, etc., by the late Thomas 

 Bewick, presented by his daughter. Miss Isabella Bewick, have been temporarily exhibited 

 in the King's Library, together with some proofs of his woodcuts taken from the blocks by 

 his own hands. A fine collection of the water-colour drawings by Thomas Glrtin, being a 

 portion of the munificent donation of the late Mr. Chambers Hall, has also been temporarily 

 exhibited in the same library. 



The Mineralogical Gallery and principal gallery of the Geological Department at the 

 British Museum (Natural History) were opened to the public on the 18th April 1881, for 

 daily admission, and since then another Geological Gallery (B), containing the British and 

 Foreign Gasteropoda and Conchifera, has been opened. 



A reduction has been made in the time for which the Reading Room will be closed for 

 cleaning and other purposes, the period being altered from the first weeks in February, 

 May, and October, as heretofore, to the first four week-days in the months of March and 

 October. During the period of electric lighting, the room has been kept open until 

 8 p.m. 



The closing of the Museum on Ash Wednesday has been abolished ; and the exhibition 

 galleries have been opened on Saturdays at 10 a.ni. instead of 12 o'clock. The Museum 

 is now thrown open every week-day (except Good Friday and Christmas-day) throughout 

 the year, from 10 o'clock in the morning. 



Sets of electrotypes from 792 select Greek coins, represented in 1,584 pieces, labelled 

 and framed for exhibition, have been presented to the Corporations of Birmingham and 

 Manchester ; and autotype copies of 30 early Italian prints have been presented to 

 different Museums and Institutions of the United Kingdom, which have the means of 

 preserving them and making them available for students. 



Duplicate zoological specimens have been presented to the Museums of Liverpool, 

 Glasgow, Belfast, and Derby ; to the College of Physical Science in Newcastle, the 

 University of London, and to the South African Museum, Cape Town. 



Duplicate, printed books on Botanical subjects have been transferred to the Library of 

 the British IMuseum (Natural History). 



0.90. A 4 In 



