The British Museum was founded in 1753, the first national public museum in the world. From the beginning it granted free admission to all 'studious and curious persons'. Visitor numbers have grown from around 5,000 a year in the eighteenth century to nearly 6 million today.

The British Museum Projects

Palmyrene Voices

Palmyrene Voices is a civil society initiative whose mission is to provide a platform for the voices of the Palmyrene people to reach the international community; to support t…

Explore project

The British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme

The Portable Antiquities Scheme (finds.org.uk) records archaeological finds discovered by the public, to advance knowledge, tell the stories of past communities and further pu…

Explore project

Iraq Emergency Heritage Management Training Scheme

The Iraq Emergency Heritage Management Training Scheme (‘Iraq Scheme’) builds capacity in the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage by training over 50 of its staff in …

Explore project

TARA image project

To preserve and curate the Trust for African Rock Art's (TARA) photographic archive of more than 20,000 images, and make it available for free online.

Explore project

Documentation of Archaeological Archives in Egypt

This project aims to provide on-the-job training in digital documentation for Egyptian heritage specialists, to digitize and publish online glass plate photographs of early ar…

Explore project

Endangered Material Knowledge Programme

To establish a grants programme to document endangered cultural practices, focusing on material culture, namely how things are made and how they are used. The digitized materi…

Explore project

Circulating Artefacts: A Cross-Platform Alliance Against the Looting of Pharaonic Antiquities

The British Museum aims to create a new database of Egyptian and Nubian artefacts currently in circulation on the international art market, and those held in private collectio…

Explore project