Abstract

The Museum was established in 1816 by the bequest of Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam, an eighteenth-century collector who sought to promote the ‘increase of learning’. His gift to the University included the capital sum both for the building, which opened in 1848, and for its endowment. Since then the Museum has benefitted from a constant stream of gifts and bequests which reflect changes of taste and collecting in Britain. Like the collections, the Museum itself has grown in response to changing priorities. This illustrated talk will trace the story principally through the growth of the buildings and will include some significant people and objects along the way up to the 2014 preparations for the celebration of the Museum’s bicentenary in 2016.