Placing Britain in the British Museum: Encompassing the Other

This chapter indicates the manner in which anthropology was forming at the British Museum. Arthur MacGregor has revealed the problematic position of ‘National Antiquities’ in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. The British Museum predates the proliferation of museums in the nineteenth century which Macdonald has linked to the nation-state as an ‘identity colossus’. Throughout its history, the British Museum has shied away from presenting a national narrative, preferring instead the identity discourse of civilization. Although the concept of civilization is not itself inherently national, it is nevertheless linked to particular political histories. The British Museum's classical edifice proclaims the museum's importance in enabling the creation of civilization as an ‘imagined community’. Pitt Rivers explained to Franks that if space could not be found at South Kensington for the continued display of his collection, he planned to build his own museum in or close to London and emphasized that: a committee was appointed to consider Pitt Rivers's offer.