Chapter VII: Book III: , Chapter 3

(LXV)

=1862.= The HAEBERLEIN FOSSILS.

_Collected_ by =Haeberlein=. Brought from Solenhofen; and _Purchased_ by the Trustees.

(LXVI)

=1863.= The SICILIAN ANTIQUITIES.

_Discovered_ and excavated by =George Dennis= (Her Majesty’s Consul at Benghazi), under direction from the Foreign Office, in 1862 and subsequent years. _Presented_ by =Earl Russell=.

(LXVII)

=1863.= The BOWRING COLLECTION of FOREIGN INSECTS.

_Collected_ by =John Bowring=. _Presented_ by the Collector.

The Collector obtained a large portion of this fine Cabinet of
Entomology during his own travels in India, Java, and China. It
consists chiefly of Coleopterous insects.

(LXVIII)

=1864.= The WIGAN CABINET of COINS.

_Collected_ and _Presented_ by =Edward Wigan=.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 3.]

(LXIX)

=1864.= The RHODIAN MARBLES.

_Excavated_, at the charge of the Trustees, by =MM. Salzmann= and =Biliotti=, in 1863 and subsequent years.

(LXX)

=1864.= The CURETON ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS.

_Collected_ by the late =William Cureton, D.D.= (Died 17 June, 1864). _Purchased_ by the Trustees from his Executors.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 3.]

(LXXI)

=1864.= The WRIGHT HERBARIUM of CUBA and NEW MEXICO.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXII)

=1864.= The TRISTRAM CABINET of the ZOOLOGY of the HOLY LAND.

_Collected_ by the Reverend =H. B. Tristram, M.A.= _Presented_ by the Collector.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXIII)

=1865.= The HEBREW LIBRARY of ALMANZI.

This valuable series of Hebrew Manuscripts, &c. was _collected_ by the late =Joseph Almanzi=, of Padua; and was _purchased_ by the Trustees of his Executors.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXIV)

=1865.= The ERSKINE ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS.

_Collected_ by =William Erskine=, during his residence in India. _Purchased_ by the Trustees.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXV)

=1865.= The MALCOLM PERSIAN MANUSCRIPTS.

_Collected_ by =Sir John Malcolm= (Died 31 May, 1833) during his Embassy to Persia. _Purchased_ by the Trustees.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXVI)

=1865.= The KOKSCHAROW MINERALS.

_Collected_ by =Colonel de Kokscharow=. _Purchased_ by the Trustees.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXVII)

=1865.= The EPHESIAN MARBLES.

Excavated, at the charge of the Trustees, by Vice-Consul =Wood=.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 3.]

(LXXVIII)

=1865.= The CHRISTY PRE-HISTORIC and ETHNOLOGICAL MUSEUM.

_Collected_ and _Bequeathed_ by =Henry Christy= (Died 4 May, 1865).

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXIX)

=1865.= The BANK of ENGLAND CABINET of COINS and MEDALS.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 1.]

(LXXX)

=1865.= WITT’S ETHNIC MUSEUM.

_Collected_ and _Presented_ by =Henry Witt=.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXXI)

=1866.= The BLACAS MUSEUM.

_Collected_ by the =Dukes of Blacas= (The elder Collector died in 1839; the younger, in 1865). _Purchased_, by the Trustees, of the heirs of the Survivor.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXXII)

=1866.= The WOODHOUSE MUSEUM.

_Collected_ by =James Woodhouse=, Her Majesty’s Treasurer at Corfu (Died February, 1866). _Bequeathed_ by the Collector.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXXIII)

=1866.= The CUMING CONCHOLOGICAL COLLECTION.

_Collected_ by =Hugh Cuming= (Died 1866). Acquired by the Trustees in 1866, partly by gift, and partly by purchase, under the directions of the Collector’s Will.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXXIV)

=1867.= The HAWKINS COLLECTION OF ENGLISH POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL PRINTS.

_Collected_ by =Edward Hawkins= (Died 1867). _Purchased_ by the Trustees.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 1.]

(LXXXV)

=1868.= The ABYSSINIAN ANTIQUITIES and MANUSCRIPTS.

Acquired by the Trustees during and after the Abyssinian War; partly
by gift from the British Government, and partly by the researches of
the Representative of the Trustees in the British Camp. Another and
a very valuable portion of the Abyssinian Manuscripts came to the
India Office, by the gift of =Lord Napier= of Magdala; and by the
Secretary of State for India was given to the British Museum.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXXVI)

=1868.= The SLADE ARCHÆOLOGICAL COLLECTION.

_Collected_ by =Felix Slade= (Died 1868). _Bequeathed_ by the Collector.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

(LXXXVII)

=1869.= The HAYS COLLECTION of EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.

[See BOOK III, Chapter 4.]

As I have had occasion to observe in a former paragraph, the preceding list is, of necessity, an abridged list. It is by no means a complete or exhaustive one. The prescribed bounds—those of a single volume for a very wide and multifarious subject—compel the writer to treat his subject by way of selection. The reader is solicited to keep that fact in mind; as well for its bearing on the chapters which follow, as on the introductory chapter now under his eye. And in regard both to this brief enumeration of the successive component parts of the Museum, and to the biographical notices of which it is the preliminary, the cautionary remark here repeated applies to _every_ Department of the national repository. It holds good of the Natural History Collections, and of the Collections of Antiquities, no less than of the Collections of Printed Books and of Manuscripts.

Among the many minor, but intrinsically important, Collections thus—compulsorily—passed over, in the present volume, are some of which brief notices have been given (by the same hand) in a preceding work, published in 1869. Those ‘Notices,’ however, relate exclusively to collectors and collections of Printed Books, of Engravings, of Drawings, and of Manuscripts. Thus,—to give but a few examples,—important collections, now forming part of the British Museum, and gathered originally by =Thomas Rymer= (1713); =Thomas Madox= (1733); =Brownlow Cecil, Earl of Exeter= (1739); =David Garrick= (1779); =Peter Lewis Ginguene= (1816); the =Abate Canonici= (_circa_, 1818); =John Fowler Hull= (1825); =Frederick North=, sixth =Earl of Guildford= (1826); =Count Joseph de Puisaye= (1827); the =Marquess Wellesley= (1842); =D. E. Davy= (_circa_ 1850),—are all noticed in an Appendix headed ‘Historical Notices of Collectors’ to the volume entitled ‘_Free Town Libraries_’ published in 1869. Of that Appendix the notices above referred to form, respectively, Nos. ‘848’ (_Rymer_); ‘570’ (_Madox_); ‘186’ (_Cecil_); ‘351’ (_Garrick_); ‘372’ (_Ginguene_); ‘165’ (_Canonici_); ‘462’ (_Hull_); ‘683’ (_North_); ‘781’ (_Puisaye_); ‘1049’ (_Wellesley_); and ‘249’ (_Davy_).

The existing constitution of the Board of Trustees of the British Museum has been on many occasions, and by several writers, somewhat freely impugned. More than once it has been the subject of criticism in the House of Commons. With little alteration that Board remains, in 1869, what Parliament made it in 1753. Obviously, it might be quite possible to frame a new governing Corporation, in a fashion more accordant with what are sometimes called the ‘progressive tendencies’ of the period.

But I venture to think that the bare enumeration of the facts which have now been briefly tabulated, in this introductory chapter, gives a proof of faithful and zealous administration of a great trust, such as cannot be gainsaid by any the most ardent lover of innovation. Both the Collections given, and the Collections purchased, afford conclusive and splendid proofs that the Trustees and the Officers have alike won the confidence and merited the gratitude of those whose acquirements and pursuits in life have best qualified them to give a verdict on the implied issue.

If, of late years, the public purse has been opened with somewhat more of an approach to harmony with the openhandedness of private Englishmen, that result is wholly due to unremitting effort on the part both of the Trustees who govern, and of the Officers who administer, or have administered, the British Museum. And, to attain their end, both Trustees and Officers have, very often, had to fight hard, as the later chapters of this volume will more than sufficiently show.