Hannah Pullen

Dear Travelers,

Have you ever walked into a museum and wondered, “Why am I here?” “Is there anything special here?” or even said to yourself, “I could have just looked this up.” If so, you are not alone! Let me tell you about my trip to the British Museum and how it compares to looking at the exhibits that they have online.

The British Museum is one of the most well-known museums in the world. Known for holding historical objects from throughout the world, specifically from places where the British crown conquered and colonized. In the modern era, there have been many controversies regarding the artifacts held by the British Museum: Should the museum keep them? Should they return it to the countries that they came from?  Because of the conflicts and controversies surrounding the British Museum, many things regarding the exhibits have had to change.

On a personal note, I was raised on the Indiana Jones movies, and he has a famous line: “It belongs in a museum!” I have always found myself agreeing with this quote until I walked through the British Museum. For decades, the museum has fought against protesters, arguing that many of their artifacts are stolen and should be returned to the countries they came from, and one of the biggest arguments is that the British Museum could take better care of the artifacts. The truth of this remains to be seen.

When walking through the British Museum, you must be sure to grab a map because otherwise, you will quickly get lost. I even had a map and got confused a couple of times. Split up into multiple floors, the exhibits are not easy to navigate, nor does it feel that they are carefully curated. Another thing to take note of is that if you wish to only spend a couple of hours or have an appointment that you need to get to, then the British Museum is not the place to go. With how big it is, it is almost impossible to see everything in one day.

When looking through the exhibits, all that ever stood out to me was that it is like a person who just wants to show off all of the things that they bought on their trips throughout the world, but rather than these things being bought, they were taken from places Britain had “conquered” throughout the centuries. It does not seem that there is any point or interpretation of history except attempting to justify what they have in their collections.

One of the examples of this type of justification can be found in the Assyrian Lamassu sculptures (left picture) that are held in the Middle East section of the museum. Next to the statues, there is a plaque (right picture) that explains how the collecting of artifacts and the idea of empire have changed throughout history.