"and let thy feet millenniums hence be set in midst of knowledge"

Tennyson quote inscribed into the floor of the British Museum

Views of the British Museum

Name

The British Museum

Connection

The museum holds many Australian items, both Aboriginal and settler.

Location

Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG

How to get there

Nearest underground stations: Tottenham Court Road (Northern and Central Lines), Holborn (Piccadilly and Central Lines)

Story

A visit to the British Museum is a must for any traveller to London. Visitors and locals alike will appreciate its wide-ranging collection of artefacts from all over the world. The museum has an extensive collection of Australian artefacts. It displays only a few of these items as part of its permanent collection. In 2015 there was a major exhibition of Australian Indigenous artefacts at the Museum, and later in the same year at the National Museum in Canberra.

Specific items worth looking out for are an Aboriginal shield purportedly brought back by James Cook from his first expedition, and some boomerangs (one with a hand-written label stating “Boomerang from New South Wales”). In Room 25 there’s a large display of Aboriginal artefacts. This just represents a fraction of the remaining collection which is in store areas of the Museum.

The Gweagal shield

Collection of boomerangs

Further information

The British Museum is a place in London which can be visited many times and something different will be discovered each time you go there.

Everything you need to know about the British Museum – here

Specific information about the Indigenous Australia exhibition which was held in 2015 – here

Various articles concerning British Museum artefacts – repatriation of artefacts – here, a mission to give back – here, New Encounters conference – here

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