Here, Caygill tells the history of the British Museum from its foundation by Act of Parliament in 1753 to the present day. She has drawn on contemporary newspapers, journals, diaries and the Museum's own archives to bring to life the personalities - the eccentric, the brilliant and the not-so-brilliant - who have peopled the Museum's galleries and imbued it with its own distinctive character.

Author Biography

Marjorie Caygill is Assistant to the Director of the British Museum. She is the author of a number of books and articles on the history of the Museum and its collections, including the A-Z Companion, Treasures of the British Museum, Building the British Museum (with Christopher Date) and The British Museum Reading Room. She is also co-editor (with John Cherry) of A.W. Franks: Nineteenth-century Collecting and the British Museum.