Imperial War Museum - Originally established to pay homage to the British contribution to World War I, the Imperial War Museum now covers all major twentieth-century conflicts involving Great Britain. Museum History London's Imperial War Museum was founded in 1917 "to record the story of the Sherman Tank at the Imperial War Museum in London M4 Sherman Tank Great War (WWI) and the contributions made to it by the peoples of the Empire". The museum was officially opened by act of Parliament in 1920 and its first location was in the city's magnificent Crystal Palace, an astounding glass building in Hyde Park. Four years later, it was relocated to two small galleries adjoining the Imperial Institute, and in 1936, it was reopened in the central portion of the former Bethlem Royal Hospital for the insane in the Southwark area of the city. Museum Building The museum is housed in a building originally erected for the Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bedlam), a hospital specialized in the care of the insane. The first stone of the building - designed by architect James Lewis - was laid in 1812. Three years later the building opened as the new site of the hospital, previously located at Moorfield. The central dome was added later, in 1845, by Sidney Smirke. In 1930 the hospital moved to a new building near Beckenham. The building's large wings were demolished to make way for a park. The central part of the former hospital building remained and was transferred into a museum, which opened in 1936 as the Imperial War Museum. #uk #worldmuseum #ImperialWar #Museum #ImperialWarMuseum #idirizzo #idirizzo1 #canon (at Imperial War Museum London) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt-bFdBnhVY/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1o48c4o9xkwnq