British Museum vs. British Library
Oct 22nd, 2006, 06:39 AM
#3
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 40
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rosetta Stone is at the British Museum- don't miss it, We spent an entire rainy day there and would go back. That is when they had the Egyptian mummies- not sure if those are still there though.
Didn't go to the British Library so can't comment on that- saw one of the 4 Magna Carta copies at Salisbury Cathedral
Didn't go to the British Library so can't comment on that- saw one of the 4 Magna Carta copies at Salisbury Cathedral
Oct 22nd, 2006, 06:40 AM
#4
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,099
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The Library has a special documents room that has The Magna Carta, copies of the Guttenburg Bible, original works of Shakespeare, the stamps from The Stamp Act that sparked the American Revolution, and the napkins/slips of paper that the Beatles wrote Ticket To Ride and another song or two.
Just to name a few things.
The British Museum has a large collection of ancient pieces -- like The Rosetta Stone and sculptures that were taken from places like the Romans, Greeks, and other ancient long-gone empires.
The Library's special documents room could take an hour or a few to get through, depending on how much time you want to spend, but other than that, it is a library, so you probably don't want to wander the stacks. I LOVED this room, personally.
Happy Travels,
Jules
Just to name a few things.
The British Museum has a large collection of ancient pieces -- like The Rosetta Stone and sculptures that were taken from places like the Romans, Greeks, and other ancient long-gone empires.
The Library's special documents room could take an hour or a few to get through, depending on how much time you want to spend, but other than that, it is a library, so you probably don't want to wander the stacks. I LOVED this room, personally.
Happy Travels,
Jules
Oct 22nd, 2006, 08:10 AM
#6
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 20,923
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
You wouldn't actually be able to wander the stacks at the British Library anyway. The books are all kept underground and have to be ordered up (by registered readers only). The general visitor can visit the exhibition galleries and the shop: but the exhibition (both the permanent one and often the temporary special exhibitions are worth a visit.
The BM is for those with an interest in archaeology: but it too has many beautiful and interesting things to see.
And they're both free.
www.bl.uk
www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
The BM is for those with an interest in archaeology: but it too has many beautiful and interesting things to see.
And they're both free.
www.bl.uk
www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Oct 22nd, 2006, 09:00 AM
#7
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,258
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I originally thought the British Library was in the British Museum, but they are in two different places entirely.
The British Museum is full of finds such as the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, etc.
The British Library has a huge room displaying lots of important documents, including religious texts, the Magna Carta, pages of DaVinci's sketches, original manuscripts, original Beatles lyrics. They are displayed in a fun way - the Beatles display has headphones for listening to some recordings and some of the manuscripts have headphones to listen to readings. You could be in and out in 1 hour, but we ended up spending several hours here and browsing through everything.
The British Museum is full of finds such as the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, etc.
The British Library has a huge room displaying lots of important documents, including religious texts, the Magna Carta, pages of DaVinci's sketches, original manuscripts, original Beatles lyrics. They are displayed in a fun way - the Beatles display has headphones for listening to some recordings and some of the manuscripts have headphones to listen to readings. You could be in and out in 1 hour, but we ended up spending several hours here and browsing through everything.
Oct 22nd, 2006, 09:27 AM
#9
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 19,881
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
< I originally thought the British Library was in the British Museum, but they are in two different places entirely. >
They were, that place in the centre of The British Museum's Grand Court is the original Reading Room for the library - it's where Karl Marx did his stuff.
The space where the Grand Court is now is where the books stacks were.
As for the BL - it's a wonderful place to visit especially if you've an hour or so to spare before catching a train from Kings Cross / St Pancras
I'd recommend listening to the AUDIO recordings
They were, that place in the centre of The British Museum's Grand Court is the original Reading Room for the library - it's where Karl Marx did his stuff.
The space where the Grand Court is now is where the books stacks were.
As for the BL - it's a wonderful place to visit especially if you've an hour or so to spare before catching a train from Kings Cross / St Pancras
I'd recommend listening to the AUDIO recordings
Oct 22nd, 2006, 09:58 AM
#10
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,258
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks alanRow. I thought that library-like room in the British Museum was the British Library, so I was confused to find it is now somewhere else. Now it makes it clearer - that it was the original library...
Oct 22nd, 2006, 10:25 AM
#11
Join Date: Apr 2003
Posts: 17,268
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What was the Reading Room of the British Museum (and has now moved to St Pancras as a separate British Library)is now accessible to the public, and has an interesting - but, to be honest a bit soundbitey and superficial - exhibition in it about the books written there. And that's not just the ill-informed, third hand, crap Marx churned out.
The British Library contains probably the most beautiful craftmanship of any building built in Britain in past 30 years. Granted, that's not saying a great deal. But a surprising amount of that craftsmanship is visible even to visitors who aren't registered readers. More crowd-pleasingly, as Alan says, there's an enormous amount of Number One single hits (mostly from the Golden Age) available even to casual visitors, as well as the wonderful bibliomaniac's paradise in mthe Ritblatt Gallery.
And it's surprisingly easy for anyone - even a foreign visitor - to get registered and call up interesting stuff from the stacks. The first edition of Marx's nonsense, for example. Or (better written, better informed and more understanding of the human condition) the first year of the Beano.
The British Library contains probably the most beautiful craftmanship of any building built in Britain in past 30 years. Granted, that's not saying a great deal. But a surprising amount of that craftsmanship is visible even to visitors who aren't registered readers. More crowd-pleasingly, as Alan says, there's an enormous amount of Number One single hits (mostly from the Golden Age) available even to casual visitors, as well as the wonderful bibliomaniac's paradise in mthe Ritblatt Gallery.
And it's surprisingly easy for anyone - even a foreign visitor - to get registered and call up interesting stuff from the stacks. The first edition of Marx's nonsense, for example. Or (better written, better informed and more understanding of the human condition) the first year of the Beano.
Oct 22nd, 2006, 11:50 AM
#12
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,145
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'd try to do both.
Schedule 3 hours max for the library (although we had a pretty good museum lunch there, so that might take longer)
Schedule <i>at least</i> half a day for the museum. Its treasures - from all over the world - just go on and on.
Have fun!
Schedule 3 hours max for the library (although we had a pretty good museum lunch there, so that might take longer)
Schedule <i>at least</i> half a day for the museum. Its treasures - from all over the world - just go on and on.
Have fun!
So documents are in the library and statues, artifacts and that kind of exhibits are in the museum
Oct 22nd, 2006, 12:22 PM
#14
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 2,707
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Aside from all the attractions cited above in the British Library, it's worth the visit just for the architecture of this new building - just beautiful!
Having overcome a number of obstacles over many years in getting it built, the architect Colin St. John Wilson should be given more credit, IMO.
Having overcome a number of obstacles over many years in getting it built, the architect Colin St. John Wilson should be given more credit, IMO.
Oct 26th, 2006, 09:04 AM
#16
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 161
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We just got back from a trip to London, and visited both the museum and the library. We actually visited the library twice, because the first time they were doing maintenance work on their "treasures," which are the main thing to see. But because both the museum and library are free, it's easy just to stop in and see several things and then leave. When we first went to the library, we ended up staying and listening to the pop albums for about two hours. Then we went back and looked at the wonderful manuscripts and other printed materials.
If you have time to go to the museum several times rather than as one large block, that might work well. It can be overwhelming all at once, and sometime I'm going to be smart enough to break up my visits. Or be smart enough *not* to spend time with the Parthenon marbles and mummies and Rosetta stone so that I'm not too overloaded to see the other amazing stuff that's there.
If you have time to go to the museum several times rather than as one large block, that might work well. It can be overwhelming all at once, and sometime I'm going to be smart enough to break up my visits. Or be smart enough *not* to spend time with the Parthenon marbles and mummies and Rosetta stone so that I'm not too overloaded to see the other amazing stuff that's there.
Oct 26th, 2006, 09:12 AM
#17
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 3,652
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
<exhibition in it about the books written there. And that's not just the ill-informed, third hand, crap Marx churned out>
such crap that it became adopted by half the world at one time as dogma - you can call it crap i'd call it revolutionary. Even though the ideas proved faulty in their entirety even states such as the UK have benefited from the ideas formulated in the old ornate Public Reading Room in the British Museum- i.e. rise of unions and betterment of working conditions for the 'working class' at the hands of the 'chattering classes".
such crap that it became adopted by half the world at one time as dogma - you can call it crap i'd call it revolutionary. Even though the ideas proved faulty in their entirety even states such as the UK have benefited from the ideas formulated in the old ornate Public Reading Room in the British Museum- i.e. rise of unions and betterment of working conditions for the 'working class' at the hands of the 'chattering classes".
Oct 26th, 2006, 09:20 AM
#18
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,713
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What I really enjoyed at the British Library was this interactive exhibit - basically it was a number of books that had been imaged - I recall a number of psalters from the Middle Ages.
There were several of these exhibits, and it used a touch screen to navigate through the different pages of the books. You were also able to zoom in for a closeup of a page section. There was also audio commentary to listen to as you looked at the images.
There were several of these exhibits, and it used a touch screen to navigate through the different pages of the books. You were also able to zoom in for a closeup of a page section. There was also audio commentary to listen to as you looked at the images.
Oct 26th, 2006, 09:41 AM
#19
Join Date: Apr 2003
Posts: 17,268
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
PalenqueB clearly doesn't understand the difference between socialism and marxism.
Before Marx studied the effects of economic development from a seat in the British Museum and a couple of guilt-ridden anecdotes he heard from his chums, real socialists had been developing thinking about fairer - and possibly more efficient - ways of distributing the benefits of industrialisation. And they were doing that thinking in the real world.
The products of real-world thinking and organisation has produced the phenomenal successes achieved by European socialism and American Rooseveltism. And, though they daren't admit it, the economic miracle of modern China, as soon as they cast off the inanities of that moronic German.
Said moronic German, OTOH, has been responsible for more human misery than other human being in history. Not only has he inspired the greatest mass murders in history (for Stalin and Mao both made Hitler look positively squeamish). But, through the fantasy world economics of Stalin's collectivisation and Mao's Great Leap Forward, the nonsense Marx propagated caused simply the greatest economic disasters in history as well.
Western European socialism owes nothing to Marx, however hard his followers tried to infiltrate and undermine institutions like the British Labour Party and the German Social Democrats. It's the result of a combination of common sense, an eclectic borrowing from people as diverse as Bismark and Robert Owen, and endless results-driven thinking from practical administrators.
Possibly coming to the end of its lifespan today, it's still largely responsible for the social peace that allowed Europe's economic boom from 1950 to 1990.
Before Marx studied the effects of economic development from a seat in the British Museum and a couple of guilt-ridden anecdotes he heard from his chums, real socialists had been developing thinking about fairer - and possibly more efficient - ways of distributing the benefits of industrialisation. And they were doing that thinking in the real world.
The products of real-world thinking and organisation has produced the phenomenal successes achieved by European socialism and American Rooseveltism. And, though they daren't admit it, the economic miracle of modern China, as soon as they cast off the inanities of that moronic German.
Said moronic German, OTOH, has been responsible for more human misery than other human being in history. Not only has he inspired the greatest mass murders in history (for Stalin and Mao both made Hitler look positively squeamish). But, through the fantasy world economics of Stalin's collectivisation and Mao's Great Leap Forward, the nonsense Marx propagated caused simply the greatest economic disasters in history as well.
Western European socialism owes nothing to Marx, however hard his followers tried to infiltrate and undermine institutions like the British Labour Party and the German Social Democrats. It's the result of a combination of common sense, an eclectic borrowing from people as diverse as Bismark and Robert Owen, and endless results-driven thinking from practical administrators.
Possibly coming to the end of its lifespan today, it's still largely responsible for the social peace that allowed Europe's economic boom from 1950 to 1990.
