British Museum

===New century, new building (1900–1925)===
[[File:England; London - The British Museum, Archive King Edward VII's Galleries ~ North Wing (1914).2.jpg|thumb|Opening of The North Wing, [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|King Edward VII's]] Galleries, 1914]]
[[File:Woolley holding the hardened plaster mold of a lyre.jpg|thumb|Sir [[Leonard Woolley]] holding the excavated [[Sumer]]ian [[Queen's Lyre]], 1922]]
By the last years of the 19th century, The British Museum's collections had increased to the extent that its building was no longer large enough. In 1895 the trustees purchased the 69 houses surrounding the museum with the intention of demolishing them and building around the west, north and east sides of the museum. The first stage was the construction of the northern wing beginning 1906.

All the while, the collections kept growing. [[Emil Torday]] collected in Central Africa, [[Marc Aurel Stein|Aurel Stein]] in Central Asia, [[David George Hogarth|D. G. Hogarth]], [[Leonard Woolley]] and [[T. E. Lawrence]] excavated at [[Carchemish]]. Around this time, the American collector and philanthropist [[J. Pierpont Morgan]] donated a substantial number of objects to the museum,<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?people=101677&peoA=101677-3-9| title=British Museum – Collection search: You searched for| work=British Museum| access-date=22 July 2016| archive-date=5 February 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205075813/http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?people=101677&peoA=101677-3-9| url-status=live}}</ref> including [[William Greenwell]]'s collection of prehistoric artefacts from across Europe which he had purchased for £10,000 in 1908. Morgan had also acquired a major part of Sir [[John Evans (archaeologist)|John Evans]]'s coin collection, which was later sold to the museum by his son [[J. P. Morgan Jr.]] in 1915. In 1918, because of the threat of wartime bombing, some objects were evacuated via the [[London Post Office Railway]] to Holborn, the [[National Library of Wales|National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth)]] and a country house near [[Malvern, Worcestershire|Malvern]]. On the return of antiquities from wartime storage in 1919 some objects were found to have deteriorated. A conservation laboratory was set up in May 1920 and became a permanent department in 1931. It is today the oldest in continuous existence.<ref>Permanent establishment of the Research Laboratory (now the oldest such establishment in continuous existence) {{cite web| url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/departments/conservation_and_scientific/history.aspx| title=History| work=British Museum| access-date=22 July 2016| archive-date=28 November 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128131604/http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/departments/conservation_and_scientific/history.aspx| url-status=live}}</ref> In 1923, the British Museum welcomed over one million visitors.