The British Museum in London, England is a museum of human history and culture.

The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.
The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building.

In the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian
artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. After the defeat of the French Campaign in the Battle of the Nile, in 1801,
the British Museum acquired more Egyptian sculpture and in 1802 King George III presented the Rosetta Stone - key to the deciphering of hieroglyphs.

The Museum was founded 250 years ago as an encyclopædia of nature and of art. Today it no longer houses collections of natural history,
and the books and manuscripts it once held now form part of the independent British Library.