Collecting Culture and the British Museum

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the act of collecting from a postmodern perspective by examining the influences of changing times, places, and persons. Considering the British Museum's stages of development and progress, it discusses the life of Sir Hans Sloane and how his actions helped determine the museum's original goals for its collection. The early days of the British Museum provide a clear view into the values of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British society. The focus of the museum's collection has changed over the years with the changing views of academics and society. The museum today still strives to hold knowledge of all things, yet tempers this goal under the pressures of modern theorists and politics. While still desiring to communicate information about the world from vast and complex collections, the museum has shifted its focus to answer questions of ownership and entitlement. Explaining national and world heritage views, the article concludes with a discussion of the ethics of collecting as a primary factor in today's British Museum collection.