British Museum Reading Room
Encyclopedia
The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court
of the British Museum
, used to be the main reading room of the British Library
. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London
, but the Reading Room remains in its original form inside the new British Museum. Designed by Sydney Smirke
on a suggestion by the Library's Chief Librarian Anthony Panizzi
, following an earlier competition idea by William Hosking
, the Reading Room was in continual use from 1857 until its temporary closure in 1997.
d roof is metal framed in segments, and the surface that makes up the ceiling is a type of papier-mâché
.
, Oscar Wilde
, Bram Stoker
, Mahatma Gandhi
, Rudyard Kipling
, George Orwell
, George Bernard Shaw
, Mark Twain
, Lenin
, Norbert Elias
, Virginia Woolf
, Arthur Rimbaud
and H. G. Wells
.
in 2000, following renovation as part of the construction of the Great Court
. It houses a modern information centre, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre
and a collection of books on history
, art
, travel
, and other subjects relevant to the museum's collections, on open shelves.
In 2006, the British Museum announced its plans to modify the Reading Room to house a temporary exhibition entitled 'The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army
': this modification was designed by the London-based exhibition design company Metaphor. This has involved building a new floor above the existing reading desks. It will revert to its former use in 2012. Details of the exhibitions that have been held in the Reading Room are:
The general library for visitors (Paul Hamlyn Library) has moved to a room accessible through nearby Room 2, but will close permanently from 13 August 2011. This is an earlier library that has also had distinguished users, including Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Thackeray, Robert Browning
, Giuseppe Mazzini
, Charles Darwin
and Charles Dickens
.
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
The central quadrangle of the British Museum in London was redeveloped to a design by Foster and Partners, from a 1970s design by Colin St John Wilson, to become the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, commonly referred to simply as the Great Court, during the late 1990s...
of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, used to be the main reading room of the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London
St Pancras, London
St Pancras is an area of London. For many centuries the name has been used for various officially-designated areas, but now is used informally and rarely having been largely superseded by several other names for overlapping districts.-Ancient parish:...
, but the Reading Room remains in its original form inside the new British Museum. Designed by Sydney Smirke
Sydney Smirke
Sydney Smirke, architect, was born in London, England, the younger brother of Sir Robert Smirke, also an architect. Their father, also Robert Smirke, had been a well-known 18th Century painter.Sydney Smirke's works include:...
on a suggestion by the Library's Chief Librarian Anthony Panizzi
Anthony Panizzi
Sir Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi , better known as Anthony Panizzi, was a naturalized British librarian of Italian birth and an Italian patriot.-Early life in Italy:...
, following an earlier competition idea by William Hosking
William Hosking
William Hosking FSA was a writer, lecturer, and architect who had an important influence on the growth and development of London in Victorian times...
, the Reading Room was in continual use from 1857 until its temporary closure in 1997.
Construction and design
The Reading Room's domeDome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
d roof is metal framed in segments, and the surface that makes up the ceiling is a type of papier-mâché
Papier-mâché
Papier-mâché , alternatively, paper-mache, is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, sometimes reinforced with textiles, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch, or wallpaper paste....
.
Famous readers
During the period of the British Library, access was restricted to registered researchers only; however, reader's credentials were generally available to anyone who could show that they were a serious researcher. The Reading Room was used by a large number of famous figures, including notably Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Karl MarxKarl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
, Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
, Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias was a German sociologist of Jewish descent, who later became a British citizen.-Biography:...
, Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
and H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
.
Current use
Following the Library collection's move to the new site, the old Reading Room was opened to the publicPublic
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individuals, and the public is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science,...
in 2000, following renovation as part of the construction of the Great Court
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
The central quadrangle of the British Museum in London was redeveloped to a design by Foster and Partners, from a 1970s design by Colin St John Wilson, to become the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, commonly referred to simply as the Great Court, during the late 1990s...
. It houses a modern information centre, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre
Walter Annenberg
Walter Hubert Annenberg was an American publisher, philanthropist, and diplomat.-Early life:Walter Annenberg was born to a Jewish family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 13, 1908. He was the son of Sarah and Moses "Moe" Annenberg, who published The Daily Racing Form and purchased The Philadelphia...
and a collection of books on history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, travel
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
, and other subjects relevant to the museum's collections, on open shelves.
In 2006, the British Museum announced its plans to modify the Reading Room to house a temporary exhibition entitled 'The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army
Terracotta Army
The Terracotta Army or the "Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses", is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China...
': this modification was designed by the London-based exhibition design company Metaphor. This has involved building a new floor above the existing reading desks. It will revert to its former use in 2012. Details of the exhibitions that have been held in the Reading Room are:
- The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army (13 September 2007 - 6 April 2008)
- Hadrian: Empire and Conflict (24 July - 27 October 2008)
- Shah ʿAbbas: The Remaking of Iran (19 February - 14 June 2009)
- Montezuma: Aztec Ruler (24 September 2009 – 24 January 2010)
- Italian Renaissance drawings (22 April – 25 July 2010)
- Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: Journey Through the Afterlife (4 November 2010 -6 March 2011)
- Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe (23 June - 9 October 2011)
The general library for visitors (Paul Hamlyn Library) has moved to a room accessible through nearby Room 2, but will close permanently from 13 August 2011. This is an earlier library that has also had distinguished users, including Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Thackeray, Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
, Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
, Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
.
Further reading
- A history of the British Museum Library, 1753-1973. British Library, 1998, ISBN 0712345620, 9780712345620
- Caygill, M. The British Museum Reading Room. London: The British Museum, 2000. ISBN 0-86159-985-3
- Wilson, David M. The British Museum; A History. The British Museum Press, 2002, ISBN 0714127647