British Museum

British Museum A museum of the world, for the world. Discover over two million years of human history and culture.
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Seeing things from a different point of view     Photo:
11/02/2025

Seeing things from a different point of view




Photo:

10/02/2025

Opening 1 May, ‘Hiroshige: artist of the open road’ offers stunning insights into the artist’s remarkable technical skills – both as a colourist and draftsman. It’s the first exhibition of Hiroshige’s work to be held at the British Museum and the first on the artist in London for more than a quarter of a century.

Explore the beauty of Hiroshige’s art as well as his legacy, which spans from Japan's Edo period (1615–1868) through to Vincent van Gogh and contemporary artists such as Julian Opie. From fashionable figures and energetic city views to glimpses of the natural world, Hiroshige captured many aspects of Japanese life.

Join Utagawa Hiroshige on a lyrical journey through the tranquil landscapes and bustling cities of Edo Japan.
Buy tickets now to save 20%
1 May – 7 September 2025
Room 35: The Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery

https://ow.ly/ZoSk50UWClz

Happy 5th Anniversary to us posting a   each time there's that big sports game across the pond! 🦉 This adorable guy is a...
09/02/2025

Happy 5th Anniversary to us posting a each time there's that big sports game across the pond! 🦉

This adorable guy is a ‘mimizuki’ or Japanese scops-owl, who are known for their distinctly fluffy ear tufts 🥰

🦉 Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), ‘Mimizuku on a maple branch’. Colour woodblock print, Japan, 1830–1840s.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." — Shakespeare To celebrate Rose Day, and with Valentine’s Day around th...
07/02/2025

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." — Shakespeare

To celebrate Rose Day, and with Valentine’s Day around the corner, we offer you a bouquet of that most noble and romantic flower, comprising motifs, drawings, and objects that feature in the BM’s collection.

🌹 ‘Rose and Nightingale.’ Paint on Paper, Iran, 1837.

🌹 Héla Ammar, ‘Disrupt II’. Paper and red cord, Tunisia, 1961.

🌹 Takehisa Yumeji 竹久夢二, Bara no uta ばらの歌 ‘The Song of the Rose’. Paper postcard, Japan, c.1900s.

🌹 Rose brooch. Chased gold and ivory, England, c.1860.

🌹 Hosoe Eikoh 細江英公, ‘Bara kei 薔薇刑 (Killed by Roses)’, Tokyo (Japan), 1963.

🌹 Book Cover. Papier mâché and lacquer, India (Kashmir), c. 19th century.

🌹 Thomas Packer (1824–1896), ‘Summer Roses’. Chromolithograph on paper, England, c. 1850s.

🌹 Jan van Huysum (1682-1749), ‘Flower Study’. Watercolour on paper, c. 1697-1749.

🌹 Mary Delaney (1700-1788), ‘Rosa Galicia.’ Collage of coloured papers, with bodycolour and watercolour, on black ink background, England, 1782.

🌹 ‘Collar of the Order of the Garter. Gold and enamel, England, c. 1628-1629.

🌹 Nicholas Hilliard (c.1547-1619), The Phoenix Jewel. Gold medal of Elizabeth I cut out in silhouette in enamelled border. London (England), c. 1570–1580.

🌹 Bow Porcelain Factory, Porcelain bowl. London (England), c. 1750-1753.

💪 VOTES FOR WOMEN! 💪 8.4m UK women gained the right to vote   in 1918 – the successful result of two decades of tireless...
06/02/2025

💪 VOTES FOR WOMEN! 💪

8.4m UK women gained the right to vote in 1918 – the successful result of two decades of tireless action by women across the country 👏👏👏

The Museum has a complicated relationship with the fight for women’s suffrage...

The Round Reading Room was a research hub by suffragettes – our archives is home to a letter from Sylvia Pankhurst, who wanted to ‘consult various Government Publications... [relating to] the employment of women.’

The Pankhurst family – Sylvia, her sister Christabel, and their mother Emmeline – were some of the most prominent figures in the fight for women's suffrage. Their home on Russel Square (just a stone’s throw from the Museum!) was the meeting place for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), which Emmeline founded. They believed that peaceful protest had been exhausted, and more radical action was needed to affect change.

By 1914 the Museum became the target of the WSPU: in April, Clara May Lambert smashed a display case in the ‘Asiatic Saloon’, breaking three porcelain cups and a saucer. Lambert was committed for trial, went on hunger strike while in prison, was force-fed, released for health reasons, and then went on the run.

In May two women, Nellie Hay and Annie Wheeler (though these were probably not their real names), entered the Museum and smashed a glass case containing a mummy.

The initial right to vote for women was subject to age and property restrictions. It would take another ten years for women to receive the right to vote on terms equal with men.

‘Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb’ was partly shot here in the British Museum. The film takes place with the wall...
03/02/2025

‘Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb’ was partly shot here in the British Museum. The film takes place with the walls of the Museum, where you can find iconic film stars among the spaces and objects of the collection.

Can you tell where this scene was shot?

Bonus points if you tell us which historical characters the phenomenal Robin Williams and Rami Malek play in the film.



Special thanks to

Feeling a bit prickly for   🤎🦔 🔎 Cosmetic vessel in the form of the hedgehog. Faience, from Egypt, late 600s BC.
02/02/2025

Feeling a bit prickly for 🤎🦔

🔎 Cosmetic vessel in the form of the hedgehog. Faience, from Egypt, late 600s BC.

‘Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young m...
02/02/2025

‘Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.’ — James Joyce, ‘Ulysses’

James Joyce, the famed Irish writer often regarded as one of the most influential of the 20th century, was born on this day in Dublin, Ireland, in 1882.

✏️ Peter Blake (b.1932), ‘Joyce's Dance by Desmond Harmsworth’ from ‘James Joyce in Paris' series. Etching and sugar-lift aquatint, England, c.1983–1984.

Who was Cha-U-Kao, star of the Moulin Rouge? ⭐🎪  Acrobat, dancer and ‘clownesse’ – Cha-U-Kao is symbolic of the bohemian...
01/02/2025

Who was Cha-U-Kao, star of the Moulin Rouge? ⭐🎪

Acrobat, dancer and ‘clownesse’ – Cha-U-Kao is symbolic of the bohemian spirit of Belle Époque Paris. She was a trailblazer: she was one of the first female clowns, and openly lived as a le***an.

She is best known today through the works of Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec, where she is sometimes shown energetically performing and at others sharing a quiet moment with her partner, Gabrielle.

This lithograph captures her in a quiet moment backstage, allowing us to glimpse the individual behind the clown’s painted face.

This print is from his series ‘Elles’ (‘Them’) which showed scenes of daily life from the dancing halls and brothels of Paris. It was a commercial flop: contemporary buyers were seeking erotic fantasies, not sympathetic depictions of working women.

Thankfully, changing attitudes and tastes mean that the images from ‘Elles’ are now some of the best loved depictions of women’s lives in turn-of-the-century Paris.

🖼 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 – 1901), ‘The Seated Clownesse (Mademoiselle Cha-U-Ka-O)’ from the series ‘Elles’. Colour lithograph on paper, France, 1896.

With the shorter days still well and truly upon us, it is worth remembering that the Museum was one of the first public ...
31/01/2025

With the shorter days still well and truly upon us, it is worth remembering that the Museum was one of the first public buildings in London to install electric lighting. Archival documents with the Trustees' records from 1879 reveal details of the Museum’s first experiments with electric lighting in the Reading Room.

Until the late 19th century, the Museum was lit by natural daylight. Candles, oil lamps and gas lamps were not used in the galleries for fear of fire, and so the Museum was often forced to close early due to poor light in winter or during a London fog.

Despite some teething problems, such as when carbon reportedly dropped from a bulb and nearly set fire to the Reading Room, this early system meant that the room could open until 19.00 in winter, and within 10 years, most of the public areas were lit electrically.

💡 ‘Electric Lighting of the British Museum’. Wood-engraving on paper, London (England), 1890.

💡 Reading Room Electricity Plan, 1879.

200 years of admiring the Discobolus 😍 The Townley Discobolus is a Roman marble copy of a much older ancient Greek statu...
30/01/2025

200 years of admiring the Discobolus 😍

The Townley Discobolus is a Roman marble copy of a much older ancient Greek statue. It has been a favorite of our visitors since it first came to the Museum in 1805 💕

28/01/2025

Happy Chinese New Year’s Eve. Timeless beauty graces the ages, a true delight to behold. Along the Silk Road, it’s not just goods, ideas, and religions that travel, but also the timeless elegance of those like dressed in Hanfu



Model:

Video by @小张的幻想生活

‘Come, sweet death, come blessed rest!’ – Johann Sebastian Bach ⚰️ Charles Ricketts (1866–1931) after Alphonse Legros (1...
27/01/2025

‘Come, sweet death, come blessed rest!’ – Johann Sebastian Bach

⚰️ Charles Ricketts (1866–1931) after Alphonse Legros (1837–1911), ‘Death and the Maiden’. England, Woodcut on laid paper, c.1898.

Remembering Dame Paula Rego, who would have turned 90 today 🕯 ♥Born in Portugal in 1935, Rego was one of the most celebr...
26/01/2025

Remembering Dame Paula Rego, who would have turned 90 today 🕯 ♥

Born in Portugal in 1935, Rego was one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. She is known for her psychologically charged depictions of folktales and literature, which often place women in strange or unsettling situations.

These four etchings all come from her ‘Nursery Rhymes’ series – see if you can work out which rhyme each represents and then check our pinned comment for the answers 📌

25/01/2025

If you thought that epic events of the amphitheatre with wild beasts and enslaved fighters were exclusive to Rome, you’d be wrong!

The spectacle of gladiator fights could be witnessed in Roman Britain. The Colchester Vase tells the story of two gladiators battling to the roar of the crowd

It’s one of the many objects that feature in Gladiators of Britain, a touring exhibition in partnership with Colchester and Ipswich Museums. The exhibition opens on 25 January at Dorset Museum.

Tour dates and locations:
Dorset Museum & Art Gallery
25 January – 11 May 2025

Northampton Museum & Art Gallery
24 May – 7 September 2025

Grosvenor Museum, Chester
20 September 2025 – 25 January 2026

Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery Carlisle
7 February – 19 April 2026

If you have found yourself scandalised by recent events on social media, pertaining to certain record-breaking acts of p...
23/01/2025

If you have found yourself scandalised by recent events on social media, pertaining to certain record-breaking acts of passion, it might serve you to know that according to some outraged accounts from Ancient Rome, the Empress Valeria Messalina, third wife to Emperor Claudius, once took part in a contest against Rome’s foremost lady of the night. She claimed that she could satisfy more men than her in 24 hours and consequently demonstrated her abilities by satisfying 25 clients in the given time frame. No scandal nor decadence is ever truly new.

🔎 Silver coin. Rome (Italy), c. AD 43-48.

😪What we wouln’t give for one more hour in bed...  Endymion, a figure from Greek mythology, was a beautiful shepherd bel...
22/01/2025

😪What we wouln’t give for one more hour in bed...

Endymion, a figure from Greek mythology, was a beautiful shepherd beloved by the moon goddess Selene. Zeus granted him eternal sleep, preserving his youth and beauty forever, as Selene watched over him each night 🌙💤

🔎 Statue of Endymion sleeping on Mt Latmos. Marble, from Rome in Italy, 2nd century AD.

This medieval cup – made of solid gold with enamel and pearl – is a masterpiece of Gothic art 🏆💎 It tells stories of St ...
21/01/2025

This medieval cup – made of solid gold with enamel and pearl – is a masterpiece of Gothic art 🏆💎

It tells stories of St Agnes, a Christian saint from 3rd century Rome. Known as the patron saint of young girls, she was celebrated for her purity, represented by a tiny lamb at her feet 🐑

St Agnes’ feast day is celebrated , January 21st.

🔎 The Royal Gold Cup. Gold, enamel and pearl, France, around 1370.

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