INTRODUCTION. 



The building now open to the public for the display Cause of 

 of the collections connected with Natural History gradually present 

 formed in the British Museum owes its origin to the building, 

 difficulty of expansion of the structure in Bloomsbury. The 

 British Museum was founded in the year 1753, when the 

 site allotted for it seemed amply sufficient for its purposes. 

 The Library of Books and Manuscripts was at that time the 

 principal feature of the institution, and the conception of 

 a combined Museum of Library, Antiquities, and Natural 

 History was imperfectly realised. But with the growth 

 of scientific and archaeological studies, and the general 

 spread of education, the importance of the formation of 

 ample collections of ancient sculpture and objects illustrat- 

 ing the life and manners of races of men in remote ages, 

 and not less of bringing together and systematically arranging 

 specimens of the various products of nature, obtained fuller 

 recognition. Then it was found that the space required for 

 a universal Library — for a collection of Manuscripts, to 

 include State Papers, and Topographical and Genealogical col- 

 lections — for general Antiquities, including the sculptured 

 remains of ancient temples and palaces — for collections of 

 Coins and Medals — of Prints and Drawings — and for the 

 various departments of Natural History, exceeded by a great 

 deal what this had been estimated at a century earlier. 



The question of an extension of the Museum building came 

 frequently to the surface before it was fairly considered by the 

 Government. The strain was first felt in the Library. The Growth oi 

 energetic action of the Keeper of that Department, Mr. AJlbrary ' 



