The museum, located in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London, was founded in [[1753]] and began with a collection of 71,000 items bequeathed to the nation by Sir Hans Sloane, who died that same year. The newly-founded Museum also acquired that same year the personal collection of Chinese and Japanese prints of [[Dutch East India Company]] medical officer [[Engelbert Kaempfer]], who had resided in [[Nagasaki]] in [[1690]]-[[1692]]. Portions of Sloane's collection were later split off and form the core of the collections of the [[British Library]] and National Museum of Natural History, London. | The museum, located in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London, was founded in [[1753]] and began with a collection of 71,000 items bequeathed to the nation by Sir Hans Sloane, who died that same year. The newly-founded Museum also acquired that same year the personal collection of Chinese and Japanese prints of [[Dutch East India Company]] medical officer [[Engelbert Kaempfer]], who had resided in [[Nagasaki]] in [[1690]]-[[1692]]. Portions of Sloane's collection were later split off and form the core of the collections of the [[British Library]] and National Museum of Natural History, London. |