Yesterdate: This day from Kolkata’s past, June 26, 1909

On this day Victoria & Albert Museum in London was finally completed, with the inauguration of a building designed by architect Aston Webb by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. The museum, named after Queen Victoria and her husband, took more than 50 years to be completed, after work had begun on the original structures. One of the largest museums in the world, with a spectacular and massive collection of art and design, V&A has its roots in the Great Exhibition that was held in London in 1851. The exhibition showcased Great Britain’s achievements, industrial, technological and artistic, within its own country and the colonies. On show were thousands of items, from daguerreotypes to the Koh-i-Noor. Initially the exhibition led to the foundation of the Museum of Manufactures, whose director, Henry Cole, declared that the museum should be a “schoolroom for everyone” and included in it, among other things, a Gallery of False Principles, which showed what was not to aspire for, in terms of aesthetic and design. Today it houses “5,000 years of human creativity”, “from ancient Chinese ceramics to Alexander McQueen evening dresses…”