The British Museum

Date Visited: October 2025 | Opening Times: 10:00 - 17:00 | Cost: Free | Website

Located: London, England

Founded in 1753 The British Museum is dedicated to human history, art, and culture with over 8 million works. The easiest way to navigate, especially if you are short on time is to pick an object trail to follow.

One of favorite rooms is probably room 1 which was originally a library and is now set up to explore how British people tried to understand the natural and human world 300 years ago. The walls are line with books and sculptures sit between glass display cases.

Just off room one is the Waddesdon Bequest, a collection of 300 objects left to the Museum in 1898 by Baron Fedinand Rothschild. The collection is named after the manor where it was originally displayed. One of the items, The Holy Thorn Reliquary, is said to contain a thorn from the crown worn by Christ at his crucifixion.

On the left side of the museum is the Parthenon Sculptures and Frieze line the room. The way they chose to display these items is incredible. In DC we have a lot of neoclassical architecture that have carved pediments so to see the original pediment sculptures that close was incredible

The British Museum is probably the poster child for the conversation around museum ethics and has a page dedicated to contested objects from the collection.

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