In 1962 these doors opened on two rooms, 1,200 objects and a librarian named Edith Pennywhistle who insisted that admission should cost “whatever curiosity you bring”. Sixty years later the doors are the same — the museum behind them is five floors, 48,000 objects and one very tired doorbell.
Our anniversary programme has run all year: three new galleries, a published catalogue of the entire collection, and a festival summer of late openings that brought 93,000 visitors through the atrium. The highlight, staff agree, was the night the Learning Lab’s hieroglyph club read the Grand Hall wall aloud — in ancient Egyptian, with feeling.
What the next sixty hold
Autumn brings the Golden Pharaoh exhibition, winter a rebuilt conservation studio with twice the glass, and spring a partnership excavating — for the first time — with our own field team. Edith’s rule still stands: whatever curiosity you bring is enough.
Thank you to every member, volunteer and Friday-night regular who made sixty years possible. The doors open at nine. Come and push them.
