The British Museum

Founded in 1753 and opened to the public in 1759, the British Museum was the first national museum that attempted to cover all fields of knowledge. The British Museum has the largest museum collection in the world, with over 8 million objects in its holdings. The museum aims to be an encyclopedic repository of human knowledge and its archaeology and ethnography collections are world renowned. A non-govermental institution, the British Museum was established by an Act of Parliament and is held accountable to the parliament.