Happy Birthday British Museum!

The British Museum first opened its doors to the public 250 years ago and is now more popular than ever.

Last year we made it the the biggest cultural tourist attraction in Britain - 6.04 million of us went along for a visit!

The British Museum was founded on June 7, 1753 but officially opened on January 15, 1759. 5,000 people visited the Museum in its first year.

Here's the Museum's Great Court with the Reading Room in the middle.


© British Museum

The Museum wanted to be like the whole world under one roof.

It began with the collection of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753). He had more than 71,000 objects in his collection.

Now there are millions of objects and artefacts to see.

© British Museum

Have you been to the British Museum? What did you enjoy seeing and doing there?

Did you know you can also look at the Museum's collections online with the British Museum's Online tours?

Here is an Egyptian Mummy mask from the British Museum's Ancient Egyptian collection. Why not
explore more about mummification?

Or play the
Egyptian tomb adventure from National Museums Scotland?


© British Museum

What do you collect?

You could get in touch and tell us all about your collections. We'd love to hear from you.