The British Public and the British Museum: Shaping and Sharing Knowledge in the Nineteenth Century

This book is a timely intervention in the history of museums in Britain. BP’s ongoing sponsorship of the British Museum, the appointment of George Osborne as a trustee and the Museum’s continued resistance to the repatriation of holdings such as the Parthenon Marbles and the Benin Bronzes have brought questions of the Museum’s funding, leadership and right to the objects in its collection to increased public attention. The book reveals this is not a recent ‘woke’ agenda but rather part of a...