Understanding the collection
The British Museum collection is accessible to anyone who wants
to use it to find out more about the story of human cultures. For
Museum staff it is the starting point for continuously expanding,
evolving and innovative research.
It is true to say the Museum lives on research. Research
constantly changes our understanding of the collection, and in turn
the cultures it represents, as each generation adds to the body of
knowledge built up by the last generation.
The Museum staff includes specialists from a wide range of
disciplines, from prehistoric archaeologists to contemporary
anthropologists, conservation scientists to monetary historians.
They often work with colleagues from all over the world, whose
contribution to the range of the Museum's activities is
increasingly important.
Their research might be cataloguing an area of the collection,
be it examining new acquisitions, or re-assessing objects that have
been at the Museum for many years. It might be putting Museum
objects in a wider context by investigating them alongside
collections from other museums. Scientific and conservation
research might look for new ways to preserve the collection, or
analyse the materials used to make objects. Fieldwork takes place
all over the world and could be an excavation at the site of an
ancient city or a study of a contemporary society.
The different areas of research often come together to
contribute jointly to providing fascinating new insights not only
into objects themselves, but into the cultures and peoples who have
made and used them. Archaeologists, anthropologists or art
historians might look to reveal why something happened, or why an
object was made, but scientists and conservators can reveal
how.
Yet the Museum, its collection and its knowledge, is here to
contribute to universal understanding of world history and
heritage. The ultimate goal of the research programme is to share
knowledge and filter new insights through to the wider world.
This is done using traditional academic methods such as
publications, lectures and conferences. But it also reaches
millions of people through its contribution to the Museum’s
displays. New research is at the heart of the permanent galleries
and temporary exhibitions, informing the way objects and peoples
are presented and interpreted.