SYNOPSIS 
OF THE 
CONTENTS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 
The Foundation of the BRITISH MUSEUM originated 
with the will of Sir Hans Sloane, who, during a long 
period of practice as a physician, had accumulated, in ad¬ 
dition to a considerable Library of Books and Manuscripts, 
the largest collection of objects of Natural History and 
Works of Art of his time. These he directed should be 
offered after his death, which took place in 1753, to Par¬ 
liament. The offer was accepted; and the Act of 26 Geo. 
II., which directed the purchase, also directed the purchase 
of the Harleian Library of Manuscripts; and enacted that 
the Cottonian Library, which had been given to the Govern¬ 
ment for public use in the reign of Will. III., should, with 
these, form one General Collection. 
In the spring of 1754 the mansion in Great Russell 
Street, then known as Montagu House, w r as bought as a 
repository for the whole. Between 1755 and 1759 the 
different Collections were removed into it, and it was de¬ 
termined that the new Institution should bear the name of 
the British Museum. 
Till the arrival of the Egyptian Antiquities from Alex¬ 
andria, in 1801, Montagu House was competent to the re¬ 
ception of all its acquisitions. The Egyptian Monuments, 
most of them of too massive a character for the floors of a 
private dwelling, first suggested the necessity of an ad¬ 
ditional building, rendered still more indispensable by the 
purchase of the Townley Marbles in 1805. A Gallery 
adequate to the reception of both was completed in 1807; 
after which, although the Trustees meditated, and had plans 
B 
