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Boston, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and
the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), returning to London in 1999.
To
accompany and support the exhibition, the museum published a book,
Grand
Design,
which it has made available for reading online on its website.
1900–1950
The opening ceremony for the Aston Webb
building by King Edward
VII and Queen Alexandra took place on 26 June 1909.
In 1914 the
construction commenced of the Science Museum signalling the final split of
the science and art collections.
Since then the museum has maintained its role
of one of the world's greatest decorative arts collections.
In 1939 on
the outbreak of World War II, most of the collection was
sent to a quarry in Wiltshire, to Montacute House in Somerset, or to a tunnel
near Aldwych
tube station, with larger items remaining in situ, sand-bagged
and bricked in.
Between 1941 and 1944 some galleries were used as a school
for children evacuated from Gibraltar.
The
South Court became a canteen,
first for the Royal Air Force and later for Bomb Damage Repair Squads.
Before the return of the collections after the war, the
Britain Can Make
It
exhibition was held between September and November 1946,
attracting
nearly a million and a half visitors.
This was organised by the Council of
Industrial Design established by the British government in 1944 "to promote
by all practicable means the improvement of design in the products of British
industry".
The success of this exhibition led to the planning of the Festival of
Britain (1951). By 1948 most of the collections had been returned to the
museum.
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