XV. It was desired by Her Majesty the Queen that on the 24th June 1872 the Museum should be opened in state by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales on behalf of Her Majesty, the Prince being accompanied by Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.
HENRY COLE,
Director.
The Bethnal Green Branch of the South Kensington Museum was opened to the public on Tuesday, the 25th June 1872, under the following regulations, which are the same as those of the South Kensington Museum:—Daily (except Sundays). Free admission on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (Students’ days), admission sixpence, from 10 a.m. to 4, 5, or 6 p.m., according to the season.
Tickets of Admission on Students’ days (available both for the Bethnal Green Museum and the South Kensington Museum) are issued at the following rates:—weekly, 6d.; monthly, 1s. 6d.; quarterly, 3s.; half-yearly, 6s.; yearly, 10s. Yearly Tickets are also issued to any school at 1l., which will admit all the pupils of such schools on all Students’ days. To be obtained at the Catalogue Sale Stall of each Museum.
A BRIEF GUIDE
TO
THE FOOD COLLECTION. [9]
*** An Inventory of the Collection, arranged alphabetically, and containing fuller information than this Guide, can be obtained at the Catalogue Stall, Price Sixpence.
The idea of the Food Collection (originally formed in 1857), now removed from the South Kensington Museum and arranged in the lower Gallery on the North side of the Branch Museum at Bethnal Green was suggested by Thomas Twining, Esq., of Twickenham, as part of a plan for the establishment of an Economic Museum that should comprise illustrations of every-day life for the working classes. The Food Collection was at the commencement of its formation carried on under the direction of Dr. Lyon Playfair, M.P., and, as now constituted, has been arranged with the express object of teaching the nature and sources of the food which rich and poor alike need for the maintenance of their daily life. Considerable progress has been made in carrying out this design, and the present brief Guide is intended as an introduction to the general principles and plan upon which the Collection has been arranged. Two great objects have been kept in view in the Collection:—
First, to represent the chemical compositions of the various substances used as food; and, secondly, to illustrate the natural sources from which the various kinds of food have been obtained. Where the processes of the preparation of food admit of illustration, these are also exhibited.
There are many methods by which such a Collection might be arranged; but the Chemical Composition of Food has recently been discovered to have so close a connexion with its action on the system, that it has been deemed advisable to follow a Chemical arrangement. All food is found to be composed of the same materials or elements as the Human Body. The necessity of the supply of food from day to day depends on the fact, that the elements of the human body are daily wasted by the processes of life. As a fire cannot burn without a supply of fuel, neither can the human body live without its daily supplies of food.