Britain is home to some of the world’s finest Museums and Art Galleries housing vast collection of art and artefacts. These museums contain a phenomenal collection of art and antiquities of prehistoric times. There are breathtaking collections of rare and precious exhibits. Some of the most prominent and widely-visited museums in the country include:
- The British Museum
- National Maritime Museum
- Natural History Museum
- Science Museum
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Maritime and Naval Museum
- Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum
- National Railway Museum
- Jane Austen Museum
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The British Museum
One of Britain's most favorite tourist attractions, the British Museum was established on June 7,1753 during the reign of King George II. It is recognized as a celebrated scholarly resource not only in Britain, but all across the globe. With a collection of over eight million works, the museum illustrates and documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.
The major exhibits include Rosetta Stone, Aztec pottery, Phoenician clay masks, Roman coffins and mummy cases, and medieval European coins.
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum on Cromwell Road in London possesses a wide collection of articles that are related to life and earth sciences. The collection rounds about to seventy million specimens that have been collected for nearly four hundred years. The collections in Museum of Natural History include unique species of animals, fossils, plants and minerals from all parts of the world.
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
The foundation stone of the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery was laid in 1874. This magnificent structure was built in Gothic style with delicate touches of artistic splendor. It is most renowned for being a treasure house of a distinctive collection of items of Robert Edward Hart (1876-1946). The items include manuscripts, gift of coins and books. Christian icons, Egyptian hieroglyph, and South Asian cultural artefacts also comprise the exquisite collections of this museum.
Science Museum
Part of the National Museum of Science and Industry, the Science Museum in London is a major tourist attraction. The museum has a vast collection of over 300,000 items, including items such as Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), the first jet engine, and documentation of the first typewriter. From art, energy, environment, medicine and biology, to space and transport, the Science Museum contains almost artifacts from all spheres.
Victoria and Albert Museum
One of the greatest museums of art & design, the Victoria and Albert Museum is a compendium of extensive range of works including glass, metalwork, ceramics, photography, sculpture and fashion, charting the history and development of the decorative arts from 3000 BC to the present day. The museum has one of the world's most comprehensive and important collections of Chinese art.
The National Gallery
Located on Trafalgar Square in London, the National Gallery boasts of a distinctive collection of Western European paintings. The museum is open to public and allows people to enter without any admission fee. The National Gallery displays about 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900.
The Tate Gallery
Situated on the banks of River Thames, the Tate Gallery is regarded as a museum of modern and contemporary art. It is a chain of four art museums: Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives, and Tate Modern. The Turbine Hall inside the Tate Gallery is one of the major attractions in Britain.
Aldershot Military Museum
Located between the town of Aldershot and the village of North Camp, on Queens Avenue, the Aldershot Museum has a vast gallery of art and artifacts that tell the the history of the British Army from the 1850s to the present times. The museum has a collection of vehicles, field guns and other vehicles, including tanks.
The other museums of Britain that collect objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance are: Abingdon County Hall Museum, Alexander Keiller Museum, Bank of England Museum, Design Museum, Garden Museum, Fashion and Textile Museum, Grevin wax Museum, London Canal Museum, Musical Museum, and the Whipple Museum of the History of Science.
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