British Museum Archives

Today we went to the British Museum's archives! 

The British Museum's archives began in 1753. The museum's archives focus specifically on museum history; the oldest items are the General Meeting of the Trustees, the earliest of which detail the museum's creation. In addition to the archival materials, there are 400,000 books on site at the museum.

Due to mold growth in the basement, the archives are currently located in the Reading Room. This room was built in 1855 to hold the collections that would later form the basis of the British Library. I adored the Reading Room! The shelves are individually custom built to account for the curve of the wall and the balconies can only be reached through staircases hidden behind fake books.

One of the archivist's primary concerns is the poor information organization practices used in the past. For instance, it is difficult to catalogue papers bound together and titled Original Papers or "miscellaneous." In addition to an ongoing cataloguing project, she faces a huge backlog of work to organize and preserve the materials. I believe we all left with a great deal of sympathy for her!

For more information about the British Museum's archives, see the full website at http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/libraries_and_archives.aspx