Page 75 - The Secret Museum

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The most everyday things are the eighteenth-century pencil sharpenings and cherry

stalks – very mundane at the time, but fascinating now. There are also lots of wax
seals and coins. All of these tiny treasures that fell out of people’s pockets or off the
walls, or slipped off tables, have survived by chance. They weren’t supposed to have
made it into the twenty-first century, but that they did gives us a lovely feel for life in
Britain’s first museum. Everything suggests a human touch. These things aren’t on
display, because they’re fragile and utterly unique. They’re the only physical
memories of the first museum in Britain.

Now, there are around 2,500 museums in Britain, and more than 55,000 museums

in the world, each with unique collections; and most of the items in these collections
are kept behind the scenes. More than 100 million people visit museums in Britain
each year. I wonder what the Tradescants would have made of that? When they
opened The Ark in their home in Lambeth, I bet they couldn’t have imagined the trend
they were starting.