In accordance with the desire of Sir Hans Sloane, the elected were chosen in the beginning from among the adepts in learning and science, and this practice continued until about 1791, when the vacancies began to be filled almost exclusively by persons of rank and fortune.
The chief officer of the British Museum is styled the Principal Librarian, which is to a certain extent a misnomer, as he has no more to do with the books than with the other portions of the collection; he derives his appointment from the Crown under sign manual, and is entrusted with the care and custody of the Museum, his duty being to see that all the subordinate officers and servants perform their respective duties properly.
The different departments are each managed by a head called Keeper, and in most of them there is also an Assistant-Keeper, besides assistants and attendants.
The patronage of the Museum is vested in the three Principal Trustees, of whom the Archbishop of Canterbury takes precedence.
The hours for the opening of the Museum in 1759 were from 9 o’clock in the morning till 3 in the afternoon, from Monday to Friday between the months of September and April inclusive, and also at the same hours on Tuesday in May, June, July, and August, but on Monday and Friday only from 4 o’clock till 8 in the afternoon during these four months.months.
Persons desirous of inspecting the Museum were to be admitted by printed tickets to be delivered by the porter upon their application in writing. No more than ten tickets were to be delivered out for each hour; five of the persons producing such tickets were to be attended by the Under-Librarian, and the other five by the Assistant Librarian in each Department.
On the 30th of March, 1761, the hours of admission were changed from nine to eleven and one, and the number admitted at one time was increased to 15.
On the 9th of February, 1774, a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to consider a more convenient method of admitting persons into the Museum, and on the 11th of May the Committee suggested that on certain days visitors should pay for admission. This was adopted and the practice continued for 36 years afterwards, when, in 1810, Mr. Planta, then Principal Librarian, first took the step of having the Museum opened three times a week from ten to four o’clock, without tickets.
The first “Principal Librarian” was Dr. Gowin Knight, a distinguished member of the College of Physicians. He was appointed in 1756, and remained at the Museum till 1772, when he was succeeded by Dr. Matthew Maty, who was born in 1718, near Utrecht, and was educated at the University of Leyden. In 1740 he published “Dissertatio philosophica inauguralis de Usu,” and, later on, a work on the effects of habit and custom upon the human frame. Coming to England in 1741, he practised as a physician, and soon became a man of reputation, but much of his spare time was occupied in literary pursuits, and at the death of Dr. Knight he was appointed Principal Librarian, which post, however, he held only for four years, as he died in 1776.
Dr. Charles Morton, a native of Westmoreland, born in 1716, was his successor. He was the author of several important works, and contributed largely to the “Philosophical Transactions.” His death took place on the 10th of February, 1799.
Joseph Planta next obtained the appointment, having been engaged in 1773 as an Assistant Librarian. A native of Switzerland,he was born on the 21st of February, 1744, and educated at Utrecht, besides having been a student at the University of Göttingen. From the date of his appointment as Principal Librarian (1799) it may be said that the affairs of the Museum began to improve; chiefly devoting himself to the improvement of the reading-room, in 1816 the number of visitors increased, and, as already stated, he suggested the vast improvement of throwing open the doors of the British Museum freely three times a week. He died in 1827.
Sir Henry Ellis next occupied the position of Principal Librarian, having been a servant of the Trustees since 1800. He was born at Shoreditch, in London, 29th of November, 1777, but of him we shall have occasion to speak more fully hereafter.
During this period the contents of the British Museum were divided into three separate departments, namely, Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Natural History, and to the first of these we must now draw the reader’s attention.
The department of Printed Books consisted at first only of the library of Sir Hans Sloane, which is said to have amounted to 50,000 volumes, and that of Major Edwards; these were not, however, actually transferred to the Museum till 1769. In 1757 His Majesty George II., “fully impressed with a conviction of the utility of this Institution,” by instrument under the Great Seal, added the Library of Printed Books and Manuscripts, which had been gradually collected by the Sovereigns of these realms from Henry VII. down to William III. Rich in the prevailing literature of different periods, and including, with others, the libraries of Archbishop Cranmer and of Isaac Casaubon, this library also contains the venerable Alexandrian Codex of the Bible. His Majesty added to his gift the privilege which the Royal Library had acquired in the reign of Anne, of being supplied with a copy of every publication entered at Stationers’ Hall.
The bulk of this Royal Collection consists of books of English divinity, history, classics, &c., as well as of Italian and Spanish works, many of the volumes remarkable for being printed on vellum, or dedication copies. The most valuable among them are the productions of Vérard, the celebrated Paris printer (1480–1530), who struck off, during the reign of Henry VII., a copy on vellum of every book he printed. Unfortunately, part of this collection was dispersed.
In 1759, Mr. Salomon Da Costa presented 180 Hebrew books, which, as he states, “had been gathered and bound for King Charles II.”
The department was further enriched, in 1762, by a donation from George III. of a collection of pamphlets and periodicals published in the convulsive interval between the years 1640 and 1660. Chiefly illustrative of the civil wars in the time of Charles I., they were collected by an eminent bookseller, George Thomason; the whole comprises upwards of 30,000 articles, bound in about 2,000 volumes.
It is impossible to enumerate in detail all the additions which have been since made by gift or purchase. Dr. Thomas Birch’s library, bequeathed in 1766, is rich in biography; two collections of books on musical science were also presented—one by Sir John Hawkins, in 1778, and the other by Dr. Charles Burney.
In 1780, 900 volumes of old English plays were given to the Museum by Garrick. In 1786, numerous classics from the library of Thomas Tyrwhitt, and a collection of ceremonials, processions, and heraldry from Mrs. Sophia Sarah Banks was added. These gifts were supplemented in 1818, two years later, by the library of Sir Joseph Banks, consisting of about 16,000 volumes, particularly rich in scientific journals, transactions of societies, and books on natural history, but which were not actually transferred to the Museum till 1827.
A collection of Italian history and topography from Sir Richard Colt-Hoare, Bart., was presented in 1825. This gentleman printed only twelve copies of the catalogue of his books, and wrote on the fly-leaf of the copy which accompanied the presentation, “Anxious to follow the liberal example of our gracious monarch, George IV.; of Sir George Beaumont, Bart., of Richard Payne-Knight, Esq. (though in a very humble degree), I do give unto the British Museum THIS my collection of topography, made during a residence of five years abroad, and hoping that the more modern publications may be added to it hereafter, A.D. 1825. Richard Colt-Hoare. This catalogue contains 1,733 articles.”
The valuable library of the Rev. Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode, consisting of 4,500 volumes, came into the possession of the Museum in 1799; and lastly, in 1835, Major-General Hardwicke bequeathed to the Trustees the deficient works on natural history which formed part of his library, and which caused an accession of 300 volumes.
Parliament also evinced its interest in the library, and gave instructions for the following purchases:—
Mr. Francis Hargrave, an eminent barrister, had formed an important collection of law books, which was purchased in 1813 for £8,000, having