Saturday, April 05, 2008

Founded This Day: The British Museum

From Today in Science History:

In 1753, the British Museum was founded by an Act of Parliament. Since then, the museum has been collecting, conserving and studying millions of artifacts. The British Museum was among the first museums to recognize that in-house scientific expertise was essential, both for the care of its collections and for their proper interpretation. Its Research Laboratory was founded in 1920 with the appointment of Dr Alexander Scott as its first scientist.