That blue expanse on the left of today"s homepage image is the roof of the British Museum"s Great Court and Reading Room in London. The oculus at the top of the dome is made of glass, and the ceilings within are papier-mâché. The Great Court opened in 2000, a new addition to a storied institution. Irish physician Sir Hans Sloane sold his personal collection of antiquities and books to Great Britain in the early 18th century. Sloane’s items included many books, rare manuscripts, and artifacts from around the globe, and he wanted them preserved and exhibited in public. This led to the creation of the British Museum, the world’s first national public museum, which opened this day in 1759. The collection has grown and changed significantly since then, but one detail remains: Admission to this London attraction is still free.
A personal collection becomes an institution
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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					Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah
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					Aït Benhaddou, Morocco
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					European fallow deer in England
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					Nursing the world to health
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					Happy World Whale Day!
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					Ready, set, read
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					National Llama Day
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					Muniellos Nature Reserve
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					50 years of the Endangered Species Act
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					What happened to these clouds?
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					Do spirits haunt the Gardens of Versailles?
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					Moving as one
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					National Hummingbird Day
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					Roques de Benet, Els Ports Natural Park, Catalonia, Spain
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					International Whale Shark Day
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					North Sea at sunset, Norddorf, Germany
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					Arctic fox in Norway
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					SantaPark, Lapland, Finland
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					Tassili n’Ajjer, Sahara, Algeria
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					Snow buntings take flight
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					The Cathedral of Florence, Italy
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					Find a Rainbow Day
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					Banggai cardinalfish with sea anemone
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					Marshland, Gloucester, MA
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					Squirrel Appreciation Day
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					A cry for independence
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					Freshwater plants in Aquário Natural, Brazil
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					Village of Santa Maddalena, Dolomites, Italy
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					A prison fit for a count
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					Registan Square, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
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