ABSTRACT
The British Museum had opened in Montague House in 1759, and its collections were installed in the series of rooms existing in the house. The arrangement of the collections within the museum seemed chaotic to most visitors. The entrance hall contained a mixture of Oriental statues, marble busts, stuffed elephants and polar bears, fossils, Roubiliac's statue of Shakespeare, Chantrey's statue of Banks, and several stuffed giraffes. The visitor proceeded through these pieces to the great staircase, and so to the saloon, where there was more of the same. The rest of the museum was divided, rather more sensibly, between the three original departments: Manuscripts, Medals and Coins in six rooms on the eastern side of the first floor; Natural and Artificial Productions on the western side of the first floor; and Printed Books, Maps, Globes and Drawings in the twelve rooms on the ground floor. The whole assemblage struck some people as lacking in order and classification, and unworthy of its national position, although others were impressed by the collections and their lofty surroundings.
