| Preface | p. 6 |
| Contributors | p. 8 |
| Acknowledgements | p. 9 |
| The 'Universal Museum' | p. 10 |
| 'Aimed at universality and belonging to the nation': the Enlightenment and the British Museum | p. 12 |
| Collectors and commemoration: portrait sculpture and paintings in the British Museum | p. 26 |
| 'Most curious, splendid and useful': the King's Library of George III | p. 38 |
| The King's Library and its architectural genesis | p. 46 |
| Ancient glory and modern learning: the sculpture-decorated library | p. 58 |
| The Natural World | p. 68 |
| Challenging the dogma: classifying and describing the natural world | p. 70 |
| Natural history collectors and their collections: 'simpling macaronis' and instruments of empire | p. 80 |
| The nature of the earth and the fossil debate | p. 92 |
| Rocks, fossils and the emergence of palaeontology | p. 100 |
| The Artificial World | p. 106 |
| The ordering of the artifical world: collecting, classification and progress | p. 108 |
| 'The King love medals': the study of coins in Europe and Britain | p. 122 |
| Engraved gems: the lost art of antiquity | p. 132 |
| Words and pictures: Greek vases and their classification | p. 140 |
| Between antiquarianism and experiment: Hans Sloane, George III and collecting science | p. 150 |
| King George III's topographical collection: a Georgian view of Britain and the world | p. 158 |
| Ancient Civilizations: New Interpretations | p. 166 |
| Ideas of antiquity: classical and other ancient civilizations in the age of Enlightenment | p. 168 |
| The discovery of British antiquity | p. 178 |
| From Persepolis to Babylon and Nineveh: the rediscovery of the ancient Near East | p. 192 |
| 'The curse of Babel': the Enlightenment and the study of writing | p. 202 |
| Sacred history? The difficult subject of religion | p. 212 |
| Voyages of Discovery | p. 222 |
| Venture to the exterior | p. 224 |
| Romancing the Americas: public expeditions and private research c. 1778-1827 | p. 234 |
| Irresistible objects: collecting in the Pacific and Australia in the reign of George III | p. 246 |
| Trade and learning: the European 'discovery' of the East | p. 258 |
| Africa: in the shadow of the Enlightenment | p. 270 |
| Chronological table | p. 276 |
| Further reading and notes | p. 278 |
| Picture credits | p. 300 |
| Index | p. 301 |
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