Jul 12

The British Museum

The British Museum hosts an unparalleled collection of artifacts from around the world, much of it amassed during the 19th century, at the height of Britain’s world-spanning empire. Even as it celebrates the arts and cultures of a great range of peoples, past and present, the museum gives expression to the Victorian passion for order and dominion. Some highlights worth noting:

• The bas-relief royal lion hunts of Ashurbanipal, a focus from Humanities 103, excavated by British archaeologists in what is now Iraq between 1842 and 1932 (room 10a)
• The Rosetta Stone, discovered by French archaeologists in the ruins of ancient Memphis in 1799 during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, and seized as spoils of war by the British army when the French capitulated at Alexandria (room 4)
• The massive bust of King Ramesses II, transported to London in the 1820s and the inspiration of Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” (room 4)
• Masterwork objects from China and South Asia, most of them purchased by the museum from private collectors (room 33)
• The Parthenon Sculptures, removed from the frieze of the Parthenon in Athens by Admiral Lord Elgin in the early 1800s (room 18)
• The charming Lewis Chessmen, relics of a Viking trade expedition in the Middle Ages (room 40)
• The exquisite bas-relief bronzes looted from Benin in 1897 by a British military expedition (room 25)
• Two large stone heads from Rapa Nui (Easter Island), taken by the crew of the HMS Topaze, a British survey ship in 1868 (room 24).

Excursion: make a visit to the British Museum. Take lots of photographs, including ONE photo of yourself on-site at the museum. While you’re there, reflect on the experience. What do you, personally, like about museums, and how does this particular museum stack up against others you’ve visited?

When you get home, decide on an artwork or an aspect of the museum’s architecture that strikes you as summing up what you love or hate or find troubling about the British Museum. That can serve as the focus of your reflection essay.

Writeup: due at midnight on on Saturday, Jul 12. Write a short reflection (approx. 750 word) on the British Museum, as follows:

1. Take a particular artwork OR a particular aspect of the museum’s architecture as your evidentiary focus, writing a rich description and using key details as basis for subsequent analysis;
2. In that analysis, address at least one of the following:
   • The outreach mission of the museum, providing the public with access to rare artifacts and artworks from around the world.
   • The research mission of the museum, providing scholars with with access to an almost unrivaled collection of artifacts, only a small fraction of which are on public display at any one time.
   • The preservation mission of the museum, staffed with highly trained experts and climate-controlled rooms.
   • The ethical quandary of the museum, filled with objects many of which were collected during the Imperial era by less-than-scrupulous means.
3. Draw meaningfully from one additional source, from the following list:
   • “The Art of War,” a webcomic by Sarah Glidden
   • “After 220 Years, the Fate of the Parthenon Marbles Rests in Secret Talks,” by Alex Marshall
   • “The Masterpieces That Napoleon Stole, and How Some Went Back,” by Farah Nayeri
   • “To Protest Colonialism, He Takes Artifacts From Museums,” by Farah Nayeri
   • “For U.S. Museums With Looted Art, the Indiana Jones Era Is Over,” by Graham Bowley
   • “Ozymandias,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
   • Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 2 opening, by Lord Byron
   • “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” by John Keats
   • “The Benin bronze,” by George the Poet
4. Include a photograph of the object you focused on as well as the selfie of you on-site at the museum.
5. Use MLA or Chicago Style for source citations.