Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, Part 2 of 2: With Notices of Its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, 1570-1870.Edwards, Edward
History
Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, Part 2 of 2: With Notices of Its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, 1570-1870.
Edwards, Edward
Book collectors -- Great Britain; British Museum
last-mentioned portions of the basement would serve as storing-rooms;
in default of it, they could merely be available for any apparatus
used in heating or ventilation.
[Then follows a General Summary of Additional Space provided for the
Collections of Antiquities, amounting to a net addition of forty-one
thousand nine hundred and fifty-six square feet of superficial area.]
[Sidenote: SUMMARY OF SPACE FOR ANTIQUITIES.]
This is somewhat less than the additional space demanded in the
estimate supplied to the Committee by Mr. HAWKINS; but it supposes the
removal of the Oriental and Ethnographical Collections, which Mr.
HAWKINS, when considering only the existing department, and not the
question of its modification, included in its contents.
[Sidenote: EXTRA SPACE.]
In addition, however, to the space provided for the collections, the
new buildings would comprise about eight thousand six hundred feet on
the three principal floors, for studies, closets, staircases, &c.
[Sidenote: SPACE IN BASEMENT.]
The space in the basement it is unnecessary to estimate in detail,
being manifestly superabundant for its purpose.
[Sidenote: SPACE TRANSFERRED TO NATURAL HISTORY.]
The Plan of the Upper Floors shows the accommodation which might be
provided, upon the present scheme, for the Departments of Natural
History, by transferring to them the galleries and studies on that
floor now occupied by Antiquities, and constructing an upper room on
the site of the staircase, to unite the Central Saloon (Return 379,
Plan 18, No. 1), into which the new principal staircase would conduct,
with the galleries so transferred. The apportionment of the space
amongst the different collections of Natural History must be left to
more competent authorities than the present writer. He may, however,
add a few words on the general character of the apartments
comprehended in the transfer. [Sidenote: PUBLIC GALLERIES.] The public
galleries are similar to the present Zoological Galleries, not merely
in their structure, but in their fittings. The wall-cases, therefore,
might be available, without alteration, for the new collections; and
the central cases might either be retained for Natural History, or
removed to the new upper floors for Antiquities, as was found more
convenient. [Sidenote: STUDIES FOR OFFICERS AND STUDENTS.] The present
Medal and Ornament Rooms might serve for the use of students, whilst
the four private studies numbered 6, 7, 10, and 10 in Plan 18, would
be used by the officers. [Sidenote: SUGGESTION FOR INCREASING THOSE
FOR STUDENTS.] The rooms for students might, if necessary, be further
increased by a trifling alteration, in the event of the official
establishment being transferred to the east of the Museum. In place of
the closet adjoining the Medal Room, a private staircase might descend
by a few steps to the entresol below, the whole of which might then be
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