Henry Cole (1808–1882) and Richard Redgrave (1804–1888) were central to the foundation of the Museum. Cole was appointed head of the new Department of Practical Art in 1852; Redgrave, an artist in his own right (see cat. 52), became Superintendent for Art. When the Department of Practical Art became the Department of Science and Art in 1853, Cole became its head and held that post until his retirement in 1873.

Marlborough House was the first home of the Department of Practical Art, which opened a Museum of Manufactures there in 1852. The museum’s educational emphasis was clear, with two libraries (one marked “Public Library”) and study rooms designated for “Casts Used as Examples in Drawing Schools,” “Drawing Room for Students,” “Special Class Artistic Anatomy Modeling,” and “Special Classes of Architectural Details & Practical Construction.” Museum rooms were demarcated by material, with rooms given over to fabrics, metals, enamels, furniture, paper hangings, pottery, works in marble, and casts. Marlborough House also briefly featured the infamous display called on this plan “Decorations on False Principles.”

The museum at Marlborough House included contemporary manufactures, as well as objects purchased from collectors such as Ralph Bernal and Jules Soulages. This view, painted in 1856–57, indicates the range of material in the Museum of Ornamental Art (its name since 1853). It also shows that a materials-based arrangement was not rigorously followed. Rather, the room has the feel of an antiquarian interior.

Part of the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851 had gone toward the purchase of land in Brompton where, in 1855, work began on a prefabricated iron structure to house a museum. The buildings were soon christened the “Brompton Boilers,” because they looked like steam boilers lying side by side. They opened on 22 June 1857 as the South Kensington Museum (fig. 21).

Inside, the visitor was presented with a more varied collection than seen previously at Marlborough House. In addition to the art and architecture collections, there were displays of Patented Inventions, Products of the Animal Kingdom (see cat. 18), and an Educational Museum (fig. 22). Walking through the latter, the visitor came to the art collections (fig. 23), visible through the doorway in figure 22, where one can see part of the cast of Michelangelo’s David (with fig leaf attached; see cat. 26). The Art Museum contained many notable objects, including the pilasters and lunettes copied from Raphael’s Loggia in the Vatican, a mirror from the Bernal collection, and a Flemish altarpiece previously shown in Marlborough House (fig. 20).

In 1862 two new courts were opened to house the rapidly expanding collection. The interior of the South Court combined decorated ironwork with murals, notably the cycle known as the “Kensington Valhalla” (see cats. 51 and 52). By 1886 two frescoes commissioned by Henry Cole from Frederic, Lord Leighton—The Industrial Arts of War and The Industrial Arts of Peace (subjects conceived by the late Prince Consort)—enhanced this scheme. Figure 25 shows the “Valhalla” on the left, and Leighton’s “Peace” fresco at the back. The South Court was initially used for an exhibition of works of art on loan to the Museum and served as a gallery for loans for the next forty-five years.

The North Court (fig. 26) contained ceramics as well as the copies of the lunettes from Raphael’s Loggia (see fig. 81). The opening of these courts also allowed for a return to materials-based systematic ordering; the 1865 plan shows each case in the South Court labeled by material. Despite the creation of these new galleries, however, the Museum remained short of space and had a crowded appearance.

In 1860, Francis Fowke (the architect respon sible for many of the South Kensington buildings) proposed an ambitious expansion plan. This included a range of buildings centered on a block incorporating a lecture theater and refreshment rooms, completed in 1869 (fig. 29). This served as the main entrance of the Museum until the opening of the Aston Webb building in 1909.
Cole’s intention was that South Kensington should attract the widest possible audience. In particular, following the installation of gas jets, he hoped that “the evening opening of Public Museums may furnish a powerful antidote to the gin palace.” Although it is not certain what the breakdown of the Museum’s audience was at this time, contemporary illustrations (fig. 28) give the impression that there were visitors of all classes. Also illustrated in the cartoon is the Palissy dish (cat. 71), purchased as part of the Soulages collection.

From its beginnings, the Museum displayed casts as part of its educational role (see figs. 6, 18, 52). The 1860s and 1870s witnessed an ambitious program of acquisitions, including casts of the huge Portico de la Gloria from Santiago de Compostela (see cat. 25) and of Trajan’s Column. By the mid-1860s this expanding collection was mostly on display in the North Court (see fig. 26), but space was so tight that the Portico de la Gloria had to be shown in sections. In 1873, therefore, the Architectural Courts, designed by General Henry Scott, were opened. The Builder remarked that “the height of the apartments, the magnitude of many of the objects . . . and the beauty of others, all concur to produce a lasting effect.” Casts and photographs of European works (as well as original objects) were displayed in the West Court; Indian architecture was displayed in the East Court. The theme begun with the “Kensington Valhalla” was continued in the display around the West Court of the names of cities celebrated in the history of art. A photograph taken in 1920 shows casts of objects from Renaissance Italy, including Michelangelo’s David (with fig leaf attached; see cat. 26).

By 1905, although the Victoria and Albert Museum (as renamed in 1899) was reorganized into five curatorial departments—ceramics, woodwork, metalwork, textiles, and sculpture—its arrangement remained confusing. One attempt to solve this problem was the provision in Museum guides of a “red line,” a suggested route that was intended to turn the chaos into an intelligible narrative.

In 1890 the British government decided that the Museum’s premises should be properly expanded; the resulting competition was won by Aston Webb. Construction did not begin until 1899, however, and ten years elapsed before the opening in 1909.

One result of the new building was that much-needed space became available. Consequently, a major reorganization of the Museum was possible and in 1908 Robert Morant, secretary of the Board of Education, set up a Committee on Re–arrangement. The Committee considered the possibilities for display in the Museum, notably the choice between a materials-based arrangement and an aesthetic/historical presentation (placing together objects of different mediums but of the same period and style) that many European museums had adopted. The final report opted for materials-based displays, however, and this arrangement (as seen in the 1918 plan) remained for forty years. Although rigidly didactic, this system of classification was in accord with contemporary studies of the decorative arts by material, important contributions to which were made by V&A curators.

The Museum received much publicity following its rearrangement and expansion, in particular concerning the acquisition of important objects. One of the most impressive of these was a twenty-foot-high bronze statue of Buddha (fig. 33). This object has been displayed in many different galleries in the Museum—even in the courtyard—and has recently gone on long-term loan to a Buddhist temple in Birmingham, England.

The Museum’s new galleries alternated long galleries and corridors with lofty courts. The former presented rows of cases containing objects of similar appearance (fig. 34). The displays were set against plain walls, so as not to crowd exhibits. This contrasted dramatically with displays created under Cole, which had elaborate settings in bold colors. The new displays were not universally applauded. The Daily Telegraph, for instance, thought that the V&A had taken a retrograde step, complaining, “For one technical student or artificer who will derive instruction . . . a thousand visitors bent on deriving pleasure . . . will be repelled and disconcerted.”

The 1909 building provided huge halls on either side of the main entrance. The East Hall (fig. 35) was devoted to European architecture and sculpture. The West Hall (fig. 36) contained examples of architectural woodwork, including a fifteenth-century minbar (pulpit) from a Cairo mosque and the Gwalior Gateway, made specifically for the Museum and presented by the Maharaja Scindia in 1883. An Egyptian mosque lamp (cat. 102) can be seen in a case in the foreground of figure 36.

The Museum acquired most of the collection of the East India Company’s India Museum in 1879–80 when the company’s holdings were divided between the South Kensington Museum and the British Museum. (The South Kensington Museum retained the name India Museum.) The early displays echoed the imperialistic notions that underpinned the India Museum’s formation, with weapons and other artifacts displayed as trophies. Following the opening in 1888 of the Imperial Institute and the foundation of the Society for the Encouragement and Preservation of Indian Art around 1890—both institutions on the South Kensington site—a reappraisal of the collections took place, leading to increased emphasis on the representation of traditional life and industries. The Oriental collections remained in these galleries (fig. 37), called the Eastern Galleries, until 1955, when, after the demolition of the Imperial Institute, they were moved to the main Museum building.

Taking advantage of the increased space in the 1909 building, the large Octagon Court became the new Loan Court (figs. 38 and 39). Loans have been important in the history of the V&A, particularly in its first eighty years, accounting, for instance, for between a quarter and a third of the displays in the 1860s and 1870s.

Subsequently, the Octagon Court has served other purposes. In 1936 it became the stage for an innovative contextual display of eighteenth-century English decorative arts, mixing for the first time objects from different departments (fig. 39).

The gallery was hailed as a revolution in the Museum, and set the tone for the changes that were to occur after World War II. Following the success of this move away from materials-based displays, the Octagon Court had an upper gallery added in 1962; the lower space was turned into the Costume Court, which remains its purpose.

George Salting was a prolific collector in a number of areas, including Chinese and Japanese ceramics and European art. By 1874 his collection had outgrown his residence in St. James’s Street, prompting him to lend items to the South Kensington Museum. After his death in 1909, the majority of this astonishing collection passed to the V&A, where it was shown in its own galleries. Cats. 70, 75, 107, and 121 came from the Salting bequest.

The Jones collection was almost equal in size to Salting’s, although more focused in scope. After retiring, John Jones, a former tailor and army clothier, lived at No. 95 Piccadilly, where he amassed his collection (fig. 41). He died in 1882 and left his collection, valued at £250,000, to the Museum. The collection was composed largely of French furniture, porcelain, miniatures, bronzes, paintings, and sculptures of the eighteenth century. Initially it was displayed in the southwest corner on the first floor of the Museum and was hailed as a major addition; an 1883 article in The Cabinet Maker and Art Furnisher, for instance, stated: “No wonder that the South Kensington authorities can hardly find words to express their delight, for the Sheepshanks, Dyce, Forster, and Townshend legacies fall far short in value to the Jones Collection.”

Following the rearrangement and expansion of the Museum in 1909, the Jones collection was moved to the former ceramics galleries on the first floor (fig. 42). After World War II, it moved again to the ground-floor galleries near the main entrance, where it remains (fig. 44). This photograph shows two Sèvres vases from the collection (cat. 86); these are illustrated in place at No. 95 Piccadilly a century before (fig. 41). Cats. 60, 84, and 85 also come from the Jones collection.

At the outbreak of World War II, the risk of bombing led to the decision in 1939 to evacuate the galleries (fig. 45). In order to encourage public morale, however, the V&A reopened in 1940. Only a limited number of objects were displayed, although according to The Connoisseur these were “just sufficient to make an hour’s relaxation from our ceaseless vigilance and obsession with war concerns.” The Museum also served as a school for evacuees from Gibraltar and as a canteen for the Royal Air Force (fig. 47). The V&A did, however, suffer a bomb blast to its west end (fig. 46), after which the decision was made to leave the damage as “a memorial to the enduring values of this great museum in a time of conflict.”

Toward the end of the war, the Museum began to consider the options for rearrangement made possible as a result of the evacuation of the galleries. It was decided to break away from a single, materials-based approach. Director Leigh Ashton chose to divide the galleries into two types: the Primary Galleries would contain displays by style, period, or nationality; the Secondary Galleries retained materials-based displays. Figure 48 shows a Primary Gallery of sixteenth-century Mannerism, containing the so-called Michelangelo Cupid (cat. 58) alongside other works from the same artistic context. As the architect of this shift in display philosophy, Ashton was hailed as an innovator. Indeed, Ashton took great care over the new displays, experimenting with colors in order to choose those that best complemented particular exhibits. His taste led him toward spacious galleries with walls of pale colors.

Ashton was also conscious of the V&A’s public role. Keen to promote it as an exciting place to visit, he instituted a vigorous exhibition program, producing about four exhibitions each year. Indeed, before the rearrangement could begin, the Museum was largely taken over by the Council of Design’s massive 1946 exhibition, “Britain Can Make It,” whose aim was to promote postwar British industry. The more academically substantial “Style in Sculpture” of the same year (fig. 49) offered a survey of the development of style from the Romanesque to the present day, concentrating on historical context, an indication of the Museum’s change of approach. Among the exhibits displayed was the so-called Michelangelo Cupid.

The V&A presented the exhibition “The Destruction of the Country House” in 1974 (fig. 50), signaling the Museum’s commitment to preserve intact important country house collections in Britain. In the 1970s V&A curators were heavily involved in a campaign to avert the breakup of the Rothschild collection, for example, which included the Medici Cabinet (see cat. 77).

The need for profile-raising exhibitions remains high on the agenda. The V&A now regularly mounts major exhibitions, intended to be both popular and of high aca-demic quality. The Pugin exhibition (fig. 51) was an important element in the reappraisal of nineteenth-century decorative arts, in which the V&A has played a major role, as well as a rare opportunity to view an extensive representation of work by the extraordinarily influential English designer A. W. N. Pugin.

As well as maintaining a program of major exhibitions, the V&A has continued to rethink and refurbish its permanent displays. Recent gallery developments have modified Ashton’s guidelines; the division is now between Materials and Techniques Galleries, which focus on the production of objects, and Art and Design Galleries, which examine the uses of objects within the cultures for which they were produced. The year 1994 saw the completion of the Glass Gallery, a reconfiguration of an important Museum collection into a Materials and Techniques Gallery (fig. 53). Conversely, the decision was made to redisplay the Cast Courts in the spirit of their original arrangement. Opened in 1982, the gallery (fig. 52) is a partial recreation of the original displays of the casts, though not the objects or photographs previously shown (see fig. 76).

The V&A is looking ahead to the next millennium and toward creating displays that will maintain its profile and emphasize its commitment to the promotion of contemporary design. In 1995–96 a competition was held in order to select an architectural design for a new building (the Boilerhouse Project) to occupy the one remaining undeveloped site at South Kensington. The winning design by Polish-born architect Daniel Libeskind, a startlingly modern seven-story structure in glass and tile with a spiral silhouette, is intended both as an architectural statement and as a center for innovative displays and exhibitions.